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In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety
of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities
and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the
occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as
their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay
tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's
intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist,
and also to his engagement in the world of social and political
practice. Science, Mind and Art, Volume III of Essays in honor of
Robert S. Cohen focuses on issues in contemporary epistemology,
aesthetics, and philosophy of mind as well as on the relations of
science and human values in ethical and religious thought. It also
has important new work in contemporary metaphysics, as well as in
the history of philosophy, and on questions of multiculturalism in
science education. Contributors include Paul Feyerabend, Adolf
Grunbaum, Joseph Margolis, Joelle Proust, Erazim Kohak, Elie
Wiesel, Miriam Bienenstock, and John Silber, among others.
"Tile; D'apC:Tile; l. DpWTa ()coi 7rpo7rapod)w GBP D'T}K,mi'.
"between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our
brows". This quote from Isiodos, the first lyrical poet, is jotted
on a sheet of paper found among the papers of Heike Kamerlingh
Onnes at the Boerhaave Museum, Leiden. On this same sheet, one can
also read quotes from Schiller, Goethe, Shakespeare, Homer, Pindar
and Dante. Each quote is for somebody or something. It appears to
have been a game played at least by Ehrenfest and Crommelin -an
unmistakable sign of these two physicists's deep culture. This
particular quote was for the "Werkplaats", the Physical Laboratory
of the University of Leiden. Our purpose in putting together the
Selected Papers of its first Director, Kamerlingh Onnes
(1853-1926), is to try and articulate the dominant trends of a
different type of culture at Leiden: its physics culture during the
years that established low temperature physics as a distinct branch
of physics. Our aims in choosing the particular papers are
threefold. First, we wish to present the interconnectedness among
the different research programs of Kamerlingh Onnes and to bring
out the decisive role of the work initiated by van der Waals in
determining the direction of nearly all of these research programs.
How happy it is to recall Imre Lakatos. Now, fifteen years after
his death, his intelligence, wit, generosity are vivid. In the
Preface to the book of Essays in Memory of Imre Lakatos (Boston
Studies, 39, 1976), the editors wrote: ... Lakatos was a man in
search of rationality in all of its forms. He thought he had found
it in the historical development of scientific knowledge, yet he
also saw rationality endangered everywhere. To honor Lakatos is to
honor his sharp and aggressive criticism as well as his humane
warmth and his quick wit. He was a person to love and to struggle
with. The book before us carries old and new friends of that
Lakatosian spirit further into the issues which he wanted to
investigate. That the new friends include a dozen scientific,
historical and philosophical scholars from Greece would have
pleased Lakatos very much, and with an essay from China, he would
have smiled all the more. But the key lies in the quality of these
papers, and in the imaginative organization of the conference at
Thessaloniki in summer 1986 which worked so well.
This book is primarily about the methodological questions involved
in attempts to understand two of the most peculiar phenomena in
physics, both occurring at the lowest of temperatures.
Superconductivity (the disappearance of electrical resistance) and
superfluidity (the total absence of viscosity in liquid helium) are
not merely peculiar in their own right. Being the only macroscopic
quantum phenomena they also manifest a sudden and dramatic change
even in those properties which have been amply used within the
classical framework and which were thought to be fully understood
after the advent of quantum theory. A few years ago we set
ourselves the task of carrying out a methodological study of the
"most peculiar" phenomena in physics and trying to understand the
process by which an observed (rather than predicted) new phenomenon
gets "translated" into a physical problem. We thought the best way
of deciding which phenomena to choose was to rely on our intuitive
notion about the "degrees of peculiarity" developed, no doubt,
during the past ten years of active research in theoretical atomic
and elementary particle physics. While the merits of the different
candidates were compared, we were amazed to realize that neither
the phenomena of the very small nor those of the very large could
compete with the phenomena of the very cold. These were truly
remarkable phenomena if for no other reason than for the
difficulties encountered in merely describing them.
The articles in this volume have been first presented during an
international Conference organised by the Greek Society for the
History of Science and Technology in June 1990 at Corfu. The
Society was founded in 1989 and planned to hold a series of
meetings to impress upon an audience comprised mainly by Greek
students and scholars, the point that history of science is an
autonomous discipline with its own plurality of approaches
developed over the years as a result of long discussions and
disputes within the community of historians of science. The
Conference took place at a time when more and more people came to
realise that the future of the Greek Universities and Research
Centres depends not only on the progress of the institutional
reforms, but also very crucially on the establishment of new and
modern subject areas. Though there have been significant steps
towards such a direction in the physical sciences, mathematics and
engineering, the situation in the so-called humanities has been, at
best, confusing. Political expediencies of the post war years and
ideological commitments to a glorious, yet very distant past,
paralysed the development of the humanities and constrained them
within a framework which could not allow much more than a
philological approach.
In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety
of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities
and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the
occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as
their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay
tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's
intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist,
and also to his engagement in the world of social and political
practice. The essays presented in Physics, Philosophy, and the
Scientific Community (Volume I of Essays in Honor of Robert S.
Cohen) focus on philosophical and historical issues in contemporary
physics: on the origins and conceptual foundations of quantum
mechanics, on the reception and understanding of Bohr's and
Einstein's work, on the emergence of quantum electrodynamics, and
on some of the sharp philosophical and scientific issues that arise
in current scientific practice (e.g. in superconductivity
research). In addition, several essays deal with critical issues
within the philosophy of science, both historical and contemporary:
e.g. with Cartesian notions of mechanism in the philosophy of
biology; with the language and logic of science - e.g. with new
insights concerning the issue of a physicalistic' language in the
arguments of Neurath, Carnap and Wittgenstein; with the notion of
elementary logic'; and with rational and non-rational elements in
the history of science. Two original contributions to the history
of mathematics and some studies in the comparative sociology of
science round off this outstanding collection.
The essays in this Festschrift are celebrations of the human mind
in its manifold expressions - philosophical, scientific,
historical, aesthetic, political - and in its various modes -
analytical, systematic, critical, imaginative, constructive. They
are offered to Robert S. Cohen on the occasion of his 70th
birthday, in acknowledgment of his own extra ordinary participation
in the life of the mind, and of his unfailing encouragement and
facilitation of the participation of others. It is fitting that
these volumes should appear in the Boston Studies in the Philosophy
of Science, the series which he co-founded so many years ago, and
of which he has been the principal editor for more than three
decades. (These are perhaps the only volumes of that series which
he has not edited or co-edited ) The three volumes that constitute
this Festschrift cover the range of Cohen's interests as a
philosopher/scientistlhumanist, as they also represent the spectrum
of his professional and personal friendships. (Regretfully, the
editors could not include contributions from more of them here. )
The first volume centers around the philosophy and history of the
natural sciences and mathematics; Volume Two collects essays
related to Marxism and science, philosophy of culture and the
social sciences; and the third volume focuses on science and the
humanistic understanding in art, epistemology, religion and
ethics."
The articles in this volume of ARCHIMEDES examine particular cases
of reception' in ways that emphasize pressing historiographical and
methodological issues. Such issues arise in any consideration of
the transmission and appropriation of scientific concepts and
practices that originated in the several centers' of European
learning, subsequently to appear (often in considerably altered
guise) in regions at the European periphery. They discuss the
transfer of new scientific ideas, the mechanisms of their
introduction, and the processes of their appropriation at the
periphery. The themes that frame the discussions of the complex
relationship between the origination of ideas and their reception
include the ways in which the ideas of the Scientific Revolution
were introduced, the particularities of their expression in each
place, the specific forms of resistance encountered by these new
ideas, the extent to which such expression and resistance displays
national characteristics, the procedures through which new ways of
dealing with nature were made legitimate, and the commonalities and
differences between the methods developed by scholars for handling
scientific issues.
The articles in this volume of ARCHIMEDES examine particular cases
of reception' in ways that emphasize pressing historiographical and
methodological issues. Such issues arise in any consideration of
the transmission and appropriation of scientific concepts and
practices that originated in the several centers' of European
learning, subsequently to appear (often in considerably altered
guise) in regions at the European periphery. They discuss the
transfer of new scientific ideas, the mechanisms of their
introduction, and the processes of their appropriation at the
periphery. The themes that frame the discussions of the complex
relationship between the origination of ideas and their reception
include the ways in which the ideas of the Scientific Revolution
were introduced, the particularities of their expression in each
place, the specific forms of resistance encountered by these new
ideas, the extent to which such expression and resistance displays
national characteristics, the procedures through which new ways of
dealing with nature were made legitimate, and the commonalities and
differences between the methods developed by scholars for handling
scientific issues.
In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety
of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities
and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the
occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as
their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay
tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's
intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist,
and also to his engagement in the world of social and political
practice. Science, Mind and Art, Volume III of Essays in honor of
Robert S. Cohen focuses on issues in contemporary epistemology,
aesthetics, and philosophy of mind as well as on the relations of
science and human values in ethical and religious thought. It also
has important new work in contemporary metaphysics, as well as in
the history of philosophy, and on questions of multiculturalism in
science education. Contributors include Paul Feyerabend, Adolf
GrA1/4nbaum, Joseph Margolis, JoAlle Proust, Erazim Kohak, Elie
Wiesel, Miriam Bienenstock, and John Silber, among others.
The essays in this Festschrift are celebrations of the human mind
in its manifold expressions - philosophical, scientific,
historical, aesthetic, political - and in its various modes -
analytical, systematic, critical, imaginative, constructive. They
are offered to Robert S. Cohen on the occasion of his 70th
birthday, in acknowledgment of his own extra ordinary participation
in the life of the mind, and of his unfailing encouragement and
facilitation of the participation of others. It is fitting that
these volumes should appear in the Boston Studies in the Philosophy
of Science, the series which he co-founded so many years ago, and
of which he has been the principal editor for more than three
decades. (These are perhaps the only volumes of that series which
he has not edited or co-edited ) The three volumes that constitute
this Festschrift cover the range of Cohen's interests as a
philosopher/scientistlhumanist, as they also represent the spectrum
of his professional and personal friendships. (Regretfully, the
editors could not include contributions from more of them here. )
The first volume centers around the philosophy and history of the
natural sciences and mathematics; Volume Two collects essays
related to Marxism and science, philosophy of culture and the
social sciences; and the third volume focuses on science and the
humanistic understanding in art, epistemology, religion and
ethics."
In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety
of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities
and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the
occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as
their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay
tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's
intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist,
and also to his engagement in the world of social and political
practice. The essays presented in Physics, Philosophy, and the
Scientific Community (Volume I of Essays in Honor of Robert S.
Cohen) focus on philosophical and historical issues in contemporary
physics: on the origins and conceptual foundations of quantum
mechanics, on the reception and understanding of Bohr's and
Einstein's work, on the emergence of quantum electrodynamics, and
on some of the sharp philosophical and scientific issues that arise
in current scientific practice (e.g. in superconductivity
research). In addition, several essays deal with critical issues
within the philosophy of science, both historical and contemporary:
e.g. with Cartesian notions of mechanism in the philosophy of
biology; with the language and logic of science - e.g. with new
insights concerning the issue of a physicalistic' language in the
arguments of Neurath, Carnap and Wittgenstein; with the notion of
elementary logic'; and with rational and non-rational elements in
the history of science. Two original contributions to the history
of mathematics and some studies in the comparative sociology of
science round off this outstanding collection.
The articles in this volume have been first presented during an
international Conference organised by the Greek Society for the
History of Science and Technology in June 1990 at Corfu. The
Society was founded in 1989 and planned to hold a series of
meetings to impress upon an audience comprised mainly by Greek
students and scholars, the point that history of science is an
autonomous discipline with its own plurality of approaches
developed over the years as a result of long discussions and
disputes within the community of historians of science. The
Conference took place at a time when more and more people came to
realise that the future of the Greek Universities and Research
Centres depends not only on the progress of the institutional
reforms, but also very crucially on the establishment of new and
modern subject areas. Though there have been significant steps
towards such a direction in the physical sciences, mathematics and
engineering, the situation in the so-called humanities has been, at
best, confusing. Political expediencies of the post war years and
ideological commitments to a glorious, yet very distant past,
paralysed the development of the humanities and constrained them
within a framework which could not allow much more than a
philological approach.
"Tile; D'apC:Tile; l. DpWTa ()coi 7rpo7rapod)w GBP D'T}K,mi'.
"between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our
brows". This quote from Isiodos, the first lyrical poet, is jotted
on a sheet of paper found among the papers of Heike Kamerlingh
Onnes at the Boerhaave Museum, Leiden. On this same sheet, one can
also read quotes from Schiller, Goethe, Shakespeare, Homer, Pindar
and Dante. Each quote is for somebody or something. It appears to
have been a game played at least by Ehrenfest and Crommelin -an
unmistakable sign of these two physicists's deep culture. This
particular quote was for the "Werkplaats", the Physical Laboratory
of the University of Leiden. Our purpose in putting together the
Selected Papers of its first Director, Kamerlingh Onnes
(1853-1926), is to try and articulate the dominant trends of a
different type of culture at Leiden: its physics culture during the
years that established low temperature physics as a distinct branch
of physics. Our aims in choosing the particular papers are
threefold. First, we wish to present the interconnectedness among
the different research programs of Kamerlingh Onnes and to bring
out the decisive role of the work initiated by van der Waals in
determining the direction of nearly all of these research programs.
How happy it is to recall Imre Lakatos. Now, fifteen years after
his death, his intelligence, wit, generosity are vivid. In the
Preface to the book of Essays in Memory of Imre Lakatos (Boston
Studies, 39, 1976), the editors wrote: ... Lakatos was a man in
search of rationality in all of its forms. He thought he had found
it in the historical development of scientific knowledge, yet he
also saw rationality endangered everywhere. To honor Lakatos is to
honor his sharp and aggressive criticism as well as his humane
warmth and his quick wit. He was a person to love and to struggle
with. The book before us carries old and new friends of that
Lakatosian spirit further into the issues which he wanted to
investigate. That the new friends include a dozen scientific,
historical and philosophical scholars from Greece would have
pleased Lakatos very much, and with an essay from China, he would
have smiled all the more. But the key lies in the quality of these
papers, and in the imaginative organization of the conference at
Thessaloniki in summer 1986 which worked so well.
This book is primarily about the methodological questions involved
in attempts to understand two of the most peculiar phenomena in
physics, both occurring at the lowest of temperatures.
Superconductivity (the disappearance of electrical resistance) and
superfluidity (the total absence of viscosity in liquid helium) are
not merely peculiar in their own right. Being the only macroscopic
quantum phenomena they also manifest a sudden and dramatic change
even in those properties which have been amply used within the
classical framework and which were thought to be fully understood
after the advent of quantum theory. A few years ago we set
ourselves the task of carrying out a methodological study of the
"most peculiar" phenomena in physics and trying to understand the
process by which an observed (rather than predicted) new phenomenon
gets "translated" into a physical problem. We thought the best way
of deciding which phenomena to choose was to rely on our intuitive
notion about the "degrees of peculiarity" developed, no doubt,
during the past ten years of active research in theoretical atomic
and elementary particle physics. While the merits of the different
candidates were compared, we were amazed to realize that neither
the phenomena of the very small nor those of the very large could
compete with the phenomena of the very cold. These were truly
remarkable phenomena if for no other reason than for the
difficulties encountered in merely describing them.
In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety
of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities
and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the
occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as
their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay
tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's
intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist,
and also to his engagement in the world of social and political
practice. The essays presented in Physics, Philosophy, and the
Scientific Community (Volume I of Essays in Honor of Robert S.
Cohen) focus on philosophical and historical issues in contemporary
physics: on the origins and conceptual foundations of quantum
mechanics, on the reception and understanding of Bohr's and
Einstein's work, on the emergence of quantum electrodynamics, and
on some of the sharp philosophical and scientific issues that arise
in current scientific practice (e.g. in superconductivity
research). In addition, several essays deal with critical issues
within the philosophy of science, both historical and contemporary:
e.g. with Cartesian notions of mechanism in the philosophy of
biology; with the language and logic of science - e.g. with new
insights concerning the issue of a `physicalistic' language in the
arguments of Neurath, Carnap and Wittgenstein; with the notion of
`elementary logic'; and with rational and non-rational elements in
the history of science. Two original contributions to the history
of mathematics and some studies in the comparative sociology of
science round off this outstanding collection.
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