相关论文: MELENCOLIA I: The physics of Albrecht Duerer

Until recently, wave-particle duality has been thought of as quantum principle without a counterpart in classical physics. This belief was challenged after (i) finding that average dynamics of a classical particle in strong inhomogeneous…

We give a pedagogical introduction into an old, but unfortunately not commonly known formulation of GR in terms of self-dual two-forms due to in particular Jerzy Plebanski. Our presentation is rather explicit in that we show how the…

This paper undertakes a foundational inquiry into logical inferentialism with particular emphasis on the normative standards it establishes and the implications these pose for classical logic. The central question addressed herein is: 'What…

Since I first became enthralled with physics as a teenager, I've been intrigued by the philosophical aspects of the discipline. As I approached the end of my career as an experimental physicist and observational astronomer (I'm now…

The art of advertising one's scientific achievements, of which Galileo was an early master, is a trademark of successful modern science. Dedicated believers and mystics of science, such as Kepler, are less popular. Yet, an alleged rigorous…

What is physics? What are the limits of what physics can say about the world? In seeking ever-broader theoretical `umbrellas' for physical phenomena, we are seeking unifying principles. Emergent phenomena have turned out to be some of the…

I conceptualise the role of dualities in quantum gravity, in terms of their functions for theory construction. I distinguish between two functions of duality in physical practice: namely, discovering and describing 'equivalent physics', vs.…

Throughout human history, people have used sight to learn about the world, but only in relatively recent times the science of light has been developed. Egyptians and Mesopotamians made the first known lenses out of quartz, giving birth to…

In 1686 in his Discours de Metaphysique, Leibniz points out that if an arbitrarily complex theory is permitted then the notion of "theory" becomes vacuous because there is always a theory. This idea is developed in the modern theory of…

A re-examination of a well-known iconographic source, the "Allegory of Sight" by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, reveals that one of the two telescopes depicted in the painting has a highly unusual,and until now unknown to the…

We recount the successful long career of classical physics, from Newton to Einstein, which was based on the philosophy of scientific realism. Special emphasis is given to the changing status and number of ontological entitities and…

In this paper the claim that Zeno's paradoxes have been solved is contested. Although no one has ever touched Zeno without refuting him (Whitehead), it will be our aim to show that, whatever it was that was refuted, it was certainly not…

In his interviews with Eckermann in the 1820s, Goethe referred to his Theory of Colors as his greatest and ultimate achievement. Its reception following publication in 1810 and subsequent reviews throughout the history of physical science…

In his scientific treatise entitled De Lineis, Angulis et Figuris, seu Fractionibus et Reflexionibus Radiorum, Robert Grosseteste is discussing some qualitative geometric rules about reflection and refraction. However, he is also discussing…

Many physicists, following Einstein, believe that the ultimate aim of theoretical physics is to find a unified theory of all interactions which would not depend on any free dimensionless constant, i.e., a dimensionless constant that is only…

This is a two-part, `2-in-1' paper. In Part I, the introductory talk at `Glafka--2004: Iconoclastic Approaches to Quantum Gravity' international theoretical physics conference is presented in paper form (without references). In Part II, the…

A natural geometric framework is proposed, based on ideas of W. M. Tulczyjew, for constructions of dynamics on general algebroids. One obtains formalisms similar to the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian ones. In contrast with recently studied…

Intuitively, the more powerful a theory is, the greater the variety and quantity of ideas can be expressed through its formal language. Therefore, when comparing two theories concerning the same subject, it seems only reasonable to compare…

The information-theoretic point of view proposed by Leibniz in 1686 and developed by algorithmic information theory (AIT) suggests that mathematics and physics are not that different. This will be a first-person account of some doubts and…

"All men by nature desire to know," states Aristotle in the famous first sentence of his Metaphysics. Knowledge about fundamental particles and interactions, that is, knowledge about the deepest aspects of matter, is certainly high if not…