Philosophy of Physics Seminar (Thursday - Week 4, TT26)

Abstract: Silvan Schweber, in his "Empiricist Temper Regnant: Theoretical Physics in the United States 1920-1950'' (1986) paints a fascinating portrait of the early pragmatic-empiricist philosophy of science that dominated mid-20th-century American physics. This 'pragmatism' promoted a methodological philosophy in science (a practice-oriented approach to the application of critical methods for the pursuit of scientific inquiry). If one contrasts a methodological with a systematic philosophy in science (a holistic approach that outlines a unified structure of knowledge that aims to connect all forms of thought into a cohesive framework), then American physicists held that the latter was useless for contemporary science. Their colleagues on the continent disagreed. The question that informs this talk is: Why?

Physicists, such as Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli, helped overthrow the worldview underlying the classical paradigm in modern physics. However, in this, they held that physics was not turning away from systematic philosophy, but finally catching up to it. The limits of the 'classical' worldview (and of naive empiricism) had long been apparent to those familiar with the responses to Kant in the German idealist tradition. It was Heisenberg's reading of Goethe (and Pauli's of Schopenhauer) that guided their developing interpretation of quantum theory, not a turn against systematic philosophy. In bringing this broader context to light, this talk will paint a more nuanced picture of the use and abuse of philosophy within physics and some of its methodological import.

Registration: If you do not hold a university card, please contact the seminar convenor or admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk at least two working days before a seminar to register your attendance.