PHI 514 – Determinism, Reductionism and Final Causes in Physics
The conceptual foundation of physics went through several paradigm shifts since the time when Galileo and Newton introduced the empirical scientific method of modern science. For the first period, lasting three centuries, the largely accepted worldview was a strictly deterministic and perfectly predictable universe, with all its events evolving in an absolute space and time. With the advent of Einstein’s theory of relativity, our intuitive notions of space and time were shown to be no longer appropriate to describe physical reality. Planck’s pioneering work on black body radiation initiated the theory of quantum mechanics, leading to a crisis of determinism, casting doubts on the reductionist understanding of the universe. These conceptual developments will be addressed in this course with an eye, also, on how the philosophical speculations of science on the final causes in nature developed with these scientific revolutions. (3 credits)
The conceptual foundation of physics went through several paradigm shifts since the time when Galileo and Newton introduced the empirical scientific method of modern science. For the first period, lasting three centuries, the largely accepted worldview was a strictly deterministic and perfectly predictable universe, with all its events evolving in an absolute space and time. With the advent of Einstein’s theory of relativity, our intuitive notions of space and time were shown to be no longer appropriate to describe physical reality. Planck’s pioneering work on black body radiation initiated the theory of quantum mechanics, leading to a crisis of determinism, casting doubts on the reductionist understanding of the universe. These conceptual developments will be addressed in this course with an eye, also, on how the philosophical speculations of science on the final causes in nature developed with these scientific revolutions. (3 credits)