Overview
- A unique publication that attempts to answer the questions:
- Are the particles of particle physics real?
- If so, in what sense?
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection (FRONTCOLL)
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About this book
Metaphysics, with which, as fate would have it, I have fallen in love but from which I can boast of only a few favours, o?ers two kinds of advantage. The ?rst is this: it can solve the problems thrown up by the enquiry of mind, when it uses reason to spy after the more hidden properties of things. But hope is here all too often disappointed by the outcome. And, on this occasion, too, satisfaction has escaped our eager grasp. [...] The second advantage of metaphysics is more consonant with the nature of the human understanding. It consists [...] in knowing what relation the question has to empirical concepts, upon which all our judgements must at all times be based. To that extent metaphysics is a science of the limits of human reason.[...] Thus, the second advantage of metaphysics is at once the least known and the most important, although it is also an advantage which is only attained at a fairly late stage and after long experience. 1 Immanuel Kant The tradition of the particle concept goes back to traditional metaphysics and ancient philosophy. The idea that matter is made up of microscopic constituent parts stems from ancient atomism. At the very beginnings of modern physics, it was taken up by Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. Newton thought that there are atoms of matter and light, but with the methods of Newtonian mechanics and optics they were beyond the reach of experiments.
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Reviews
From the reviews:
"This work could, and should, change the direction of current philosophy of science. Accomplished physicist-philosopher Falkenburg … has constructed a significant metaphysical framework in which to evaluate the knowledge claims of empirical particle physics. … Urgently recommended to all philosophers of science and interested physicists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (P. D. Skiff, CHOICE, Vol. v4 (3), November, 2007)
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Particle Metaphysics
Book Subtitle: A Critical Account of Subatomic Reality
Authors: Brigitte Falkenburg
Series Title: The Frontiers Collection
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-33732-4
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-540-33731-7Published: 12 March 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-642-07029-7Published: 23 November 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-3-540-33732-4Published: 21 March 2007
Series ISSN: 1612-3018
Series E-ISSN: 2197-6619
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 386
Number of Illustrations: 30 b/w illustrations
Topics: Particle and Nuclear Physics, Philosophy, general, Quantum Physics