Overview

Modern physical science is constituted by specialized scientific fields rooted in experimental laboratory work and in rational and mathematical representations. Contemporary scientific explanation is rigorously differentiated from religious interpretation, although scientists sometimes do the philosophical work of interpreting the metaphysics of space, time, and matter. However it is rare that either theologians or philosophers convincingly claim that they are doing the scientific work of physical scientists and mathematicians. The rigidity of these divisions and differentiations is relatively new. Modern physical science was invented slowly and gradually through interactions of the aims and contents of mathematics, theology, and natural philosophy since the 17th-century. In essays ranging in focus from 17th-century interpretations of heavenly comets to 20th-century explanations of tracks in bubble chambers, historians of science demonstrate metaphysical and theological threads continuing to underpin the epistemology and practice of the physical sciences and mathematics, even while they became disciplinary specialities during the last three centuries. This volume is prefaced by tributes to Erwin N. Hiebert.

Full Product Details

Author:   M.J. Nye ,  J. Richards ,  R. Stuewer
Publisher:   Springer
Imprint:   Springer
Edition:   1992 ed.
Volume:   139
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   1.370kg
ISBN:  

9780792317531

ISBN 10:   079231753
Pages:   278
Publication Date:   30 September 1992
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

I. Natural Theology, Natural Philosophy and the Certainty of Mathematics.- Devils’ Hells and Astronomers’ Heavens: Religion, Method, and Popular Culture in Speculations about Life on Comets.- The Doctrine of Chances without Chance: Determinism, Mathematical Probability, and Quantification in the Seventeenth Century.- God, Truth, and Mathematics in Nineteenth-Century England.- II. Problems of Contingency, Coherence, and Truth.- Theologians, Science, and Theories of Truth in Nineteenth-Century Germany.- Equivalence, Pragmatic Platonism, and Discovery of the Calculus.- III. The Aims and Foundations of Physical Science: The Cases of Electrical Physics, Psychophysics, and Physical Chemistry.- The Training of German Research Physicist Heinrich Hertz.- From Psychophysics to Phenomenalism: Mach and Hering on Color Vision.- A Usable Past: Creating Disciplinary Space for Physical Chemistry.- IV. Explanation and Discovery: The Claims of Chemistry, Physics, and Fortran.- Physics and Chemistry: Commensurate or Incommensurate Sciences?.- FORTRAN, Physics, and Human Nature.- APPENDIX I. Erwin N. Hiebert’s Doctoral Students and Directed Dissertations.- APPENDIX II. Erwin N. Hiebert. Selected List of Publications.- Notes on Contributors.- Name Index.

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