物理学史与哲学

Ian McGilchrist's works present the thesis that the two hemispheres of the brain have radically different modes of interacting with the world, and that their respective perceptions and functions must be properly integrated for a viable way…

This paper critically examines the models of scientific discovery propounded by Kuhn, McArthur, Hudson, and Schindler. As an alternative, we proffer the $\unicode{x201c}$change$\unicode{x2013}$driver model$\unicode{x201c}$. It conceives of…

Some authors have defended the claim that one needs to be able to define 'physical coordinate systems' and 'observables' in order to make sense of general relativity. Moreover, in Rovelli (Physical Review D, 65(4), 044017 2002), Rovelli…

In this paper I argue that the fundamental aspect of our notion of time is that it defines an order relation, be it a total order relation between configurations of the world or just a partial order relation between events. This position is…

Most believe that there are no empirical grounds that make the adoption of quantum logic necessary. Ian Rumfitt has further argued that this adoption is not possible, either, for the proof that distribution fails in quantum mechanics is…

In theories with a diffeomorphism symmetry, such as general relativity and canonical quantum gravity, it is often proposed that the empirical content is encoded in relational observables. But how do relational observables actually make…

This article provides information about the factors that necessitated the need to adjust the calendar during the time of Umar Khayyam, the method of choosing the beginning of the year, and the length of the months. It also attempts to…

Since the early days of humankind, people have been asking questions about Nature of two kinds: why did that happen? And how can that be used? In a broad sense, science was born that day. We show indeed that science has two complementary…

This paper explores a unique cave art found in southern Puerto Rico that depicts a comet over a tomb. Through interdisciplinary methods, including art interpretation, historical documentation, and demographic analysis, this study uncovered…

An influential theorem by Satosi Watanabe convinced many that there can be no physical probabilistic theory with both non-trivial forward and backward transition probabilities. We show that this conclusion does not follow from the theorem.…

I analyze the possibility of free-will in the many-worlds interpretation (MWI), arguing for their compatibility. I use as a starting point Nicolas Gisin's "The Multiverse Pandemic" (preprint arXiv:2210.05377, after Gisin, N.,…

In this paper I aim to defend one version at least of Hume's dictum: roughly, the idea that possibility is determined by ontology through something like independent variation. My defence is broadly pragmatic, in the sense that adherence to…

This is a review of James Read's insightful book, Background Independence in Classical and Quantum Gravity. The book introduces various notions of background-independence which it then makes precise, and uses to make verdicts about…

Physicists and philosophers are increasingly prone to regarding our current physical theories as providing 'effective descriptions' of real-world systems. In the context of quantum gravity research, this fuels a common view that the…

The present work examines and compares the approaches of Jacob Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler to the problem of ship propulsion generated by internal forces. Jacob Bernoulli's analysis, developed in the late 17th century, relies on geometric…

The following translation of Leonhard Euler's "Examination of an Artifice for Propelling a Ship by the Principle of Internal Motion," originally published in 1750, offers a glimpse into a fascinating historical debate in the field of…

Three extraordinary physics discoveries were made from colonial India, which did not have any previous tradition of research in modern physics: Saha ionization equation (1920), Bose statistics (1924), Raman effect (1928). All the three…

Three extraordinary physics discoveries were made from colonial India, which did not have any previous tradition of research in modern physics: Saha ionization equation (1920), Bose statistics (1924), Raman effect (1928). All the three…

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries have long been considered as a formative period for modern Irish political traditions such as nationalism, republicanism and unionism. For Europe it was the time of a turnover in science…

Our fundamental theories, i.e., the quantum theory and general relativity, are invariant under time reversal. Only when we treat system from the point of view of thermodynamics, i.e., averaging between many subsystem components, an arrow of…