Read more
Zusatztext In this excellently written book, Darrigol steps back to survey the history of necessity in physics, and the richness of the necessitarian programme despite that programme's (sometimes embarrassing) trail of failures. What he shows is the persistence of the belief in a rational and comprehensible universe and the importance of that belief for the development of empirical science --- whatever sober, empirical reservations come in to philosophical fashion. Reading this book may remind us all why we were interested in philosophy in the first place. Informationen zum Autor Olivier Darrigol studied physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the history and philosophy of physics at the Sorbonne and at UC-Berkeley's Office for History of Science and Technology (OHST). He is the author of several books on the history of quantum physics, electrodynamics, hydrodynamics, and optics. He is currently a member of the SPHere research team at CNRS/Paris 7, and a Research Associate at UC-Berkeley's OHST. Klappentext This book recounts a few ingenious attempts to derive physical theories by reason only, beginning with Descartes' geometric construction of the world, and finishing with recent derivations of quantum mechanics from natural axioms. Zusammenfassung This book recounts a few ingenious attempts to derive physical theories by reason only, beginning with Descartes' geometric construction of the world, and finishing with recent derivations of quantum mechanics from natural axioms. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1: Rationalism in the history of mechanics 2: The necessity of classical mechanics 3: From mechanical reduction to general principles 4: Geometry 5: Spacetime 6: Numbers and math 7: Classical field theories 8: Quantum mechanics 9: Necessity, theories, and modules
