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Symbol and Physical Knowledge

On the Conceptual Structure of Physics

M. Ferrari, I.-O. Stamatescu (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

XV, 230 Seiten

2001 | 2002
Springer Berlin (Verlag)
978-3-540-41467-4 (ISBN)

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The question of the symbolic structure of physics is implicitly involved in any discussion about the character of physical knowledge and the development of physical theories. Actually many discussions would greatly profit from an explicit reference to and an investigation of this question, and much confusion may be avoided in this way. A book directly addressing the use and character of symbols in physics may help provide a point of view which is in the back ground of any consideration in the theory of knowledge and which is, to be sure, very relevant today, but - strangely enough - often seems to be missing as an explicit and central perspective in the present epistemological debates. The concept of symbol has different meanings. Its wide diffusion in various cultural fields such as religion, mythology, art, and psychoanalysis, constitutes the best proof of its semantic variety, but also of the danger of using it in too vague a way. We start here from the concept of symbol conceived in the general sense of a sign or a material medium which is able, on the one hand, to communicate mental or conceptual contents and, on the other hand, to des ignate things or situations in the world. In this way symbols make it possible for human knowledge to "translate" the mental activity grasping the real ity in conceptual frames, formal or natural languages, scientific propositions, theories and so on.

1. Sources for the History of the Concept of Symbol from Leibniz to Cassirer.- 2. On the Use and Character of Symbols in Modern Physical Theories.- 3. The Symbol in the Theory of Science: Duhem's Alleged Instrumentalism or Conventionalism and the Continuity of Scientific Development.- 4. Beyond Realism. Symbolism in the Philosophy of Science by Charles S. Peirce and Ernst Cassirer.- 5. Heinrich Hertz and the Concept of a Symbol.- 6. Shifting Symbolic Structures and Changing Theories: On the Non-Translatability and Empirical Comparability of Incommensurable Theories.- 7. Symbol and Intuition in Modern Physics.- 8. Idealizations in Physics.- 9. Symbolizing States and Events in Quantum Mechanics.- 10. The Semiotics of "Postmodern" Physics.

"The book has the important merit of calling our attention to the fundamental problem of sorting out what in physical theories comes from ourselves (the a priori, symbolic, conventional part) and what comes from nature, a question that we are far from having definitely solved." (International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 17/1, 2003)

Erscheint lt. Verlag	28.8.2001
Zusatzinfo	XV, 230 p. 1 illus.
Verlagsort	Berlin
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	488 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
Schlagworte	Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz • Knowledge • Mechanics • Natur • philosophy of science • Physik • quantum mechanics • Science • Subject • Symbol • Symbolik • theory of science
ISBN-10	3-540-41467-3 / 3540414673
ISBN-13	978-3-540-41467-4 / 9783540414674
Zustand	Neuware