Forces and Fields The Concept of Action at a Distance in the History of Physics

by Hesse, Mary B.

• ISBN13: 9780486442402
• ISBN10: 0486442403
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-17
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

An in-depth look at the science of ancient Greece, this volume examines the influence of antique philosophy on 17th-century thought. Additional topics embrace many elements of modern physics: the empirical basis of quantum mechanics, wave-particle duality and the uncertainty principle, and the action-at-a-distance theory of Wheeler and Feynman. 1961 edition.

Table of Contents

The Logical Status of Theories
Physics and epistemology	1	(2)
A realist view of theories	3	(3)
Operationalism	6	(2)
The hypothetico-deductive method and falsifiability	8	(5)
The dictionary theory	13	(8)
Models	21	(8)
The Primitive Analogies
Analogies in primitive scientific explanation	29	(5)
Nature as `Thou': indefiniteness of the problem of interaction	34	(5)
The Pre-Socratics: distinction between matter and force	39	(3)
Atomism	42	(4)
Immaterial causes	46	(5)
Mechanism in Greek Science
Mechanical analogies among the cosmologists and medical writers	51	(3)
The horror vacui and antiperistasis	54	(6)
Aristotle : matter and form and the primary qualities	60	(3)
Aristotle : theory of motion and change	63	(4)
Aristotle : the principle of action by contact	67	(3)
Aristotle : the unmoved first mover	70	(4)
The Greek Inheritance
The primitive analogies in medieval belief	74	(3)
The emanation theories	77	(2)
Multiplication of species	79	(3)
The theory of vacuum-suction	82	(4)
Gilbert's De Magnete	86	(5)
Francis Bacon's classification of actions at a distance	91	(7)
The Corpuscular Philosophy
Falsifiability as a seventeenth-century criterion for theories	98	(4)
Descartes's mechanical continuum	102	(6)
Descartes's method	108	(4)
Corpuscular and medium theories	112	(9)
Locke on the mechanical philosophy	121	(5)
The Theory of Gravitation
Gravity as internal tendency or external attraction	126	(3)
The planetary orbits	129	(5)
An analysis of Newton's laws of motion	134	(10)
Universal gravitation as a mathematical law	144	(4)
Universal gravitation as a physical hypothesis	148	(5)
Newton's atomism and active principles	153	(4)
Action at a Distance
Leibniz's attack on action at a distance	157	(6)
Philosophical justifications of action at a distance	163	(7)
Kant : The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science	170	(3)
Kant : infinite divisibility of matter as a regulative principle	173	(3)
Kant : attraction and repulsion	176	(4)
Elastic fluid theories in physics and chemistry	180	(9)
The Field Theories
Euler's hydrodynamics	189	(6)
Criteria for continuous contact-action	195	(3)
Faraday : the physical nature of lines of force	198	(5)
Faraday : criteria for action at a distance	203	(3)
Maxwell : mechanical and field theories of continuous action	206	(6)
Hertz: interpretations of Maxwell's equations	212	(4)
The Continental action-at-a-distance school	216	(6)
Gravitation	222	(4)
The Theory of Relativity
Interpretations of the Michelson-Morley experiment	226	(9)
Consequences of the Lorentz transformation	235	(4)
Milne's action-at-a-distance theory	239	(6)
Einstein's theory of gravitation	245	(8)
Conventional and factual aspects of geometry	253	(6)
Modern Physics
The empirical basis of quantum mechanics	259	(4)
The wave-particle duality and uncertainty principle	263	(4)
Sub-quantum theories	267	(3)
Modes of action in the quantum field	270	(5)
The meson and Maxwell fields	275	(4)
The action-at-a-distance theory of Wheeler and Feynman	279	(6)
Reversibility of cause and effect	285	(5)
The Metaphysical Framework of Physics
Some heuristic and metaphysical considerations	290	(5)
Theoretical aspects of extrasensory perception	295	(10)
Appendix I	305	(1)
Appendix II	306	(2)
Bibliography	308	(5)
Index of Proper Names	313	(3)
Index of Subjects	316