Delaware Seminar in the Foundations of Physics

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

   PDF

2. Foundations Research in Physics

   • Peter G. Bergmann

   Pages 1-14

3. The Structure and Content of a Physical Theory

   • Mario Bunge

   Pages 15-27

4. Space-Time Structures in Classical Mechanics

   • Walter Noll

   Pages 28-34

5. Foundations of Continuum Mechanics

   • Clifford A. Truesdell

   Pages 35-48

6. Levels of Description in Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics

   • Harold Grad

   Pages 49-76

7. Foundations of Probability Theory and Statistical Mechanics

   • Edwin T. Jaynes

   Pages 77-101

8. General Covariance in Electromagnetism

   • E. J. Post

   Pages 102-123

9. Foundation Problems in General Relativity

   • Peter Havas

   Pages 124-148

10. Relations of Quantum to Classical Physics

    • Ralph Schiller

    Pages 149-160

11. Objectivity in Quantum Mechanics

    • Henry Margenau, James L. Park

    Pages 161-187

12. Scope and Limits of Axiomatics

    • Paul Bernays

    Pages 188-191

13. Back Matter

    Pages 192-193

    PDF

This volume collects the lectures on the foundations of physics given by eleven scientists at the University of Delaware. It is neither an anthology of disconnected items nor a smoothly running textbook but rather a progress report on a neglected yet vital area of basic physical research, namely foundations research. The investigation into the foundations of any branch of science is neither loose speculation nor popular science: it is an aspect of scientific research - in fact the deepest-searching part of basic research. Con­ sequently it must be carried out by the scientist himself. Thus whether the time concept is a numerical variable or a function, whether particle mechanics is the primary mechanical theory or a particular case of continuum mechanics, whether transformation formulas are laws of nature or links between equivalent descriptions, whether thermodynamics has been fully reduced to statistical mechanics, whether the field concept is dispensable, whether the covariance principle is a law or a regulative principle, whether quantum mechanics is completely detached from classical physics or contains fragments of it, whether it has annihilated the physical object or given a more complex picture of it, and to which extent are the field variables measurable - all these are technical questions demanding a careful analysis of pieces of recent basic research. Yet all of these problems and indeed all questions in foundational research are philosophical as well as scientific.

• continuum mechanics
• dynamics
• mechanics
• physics
• quantum mechanics
• science
• statistical mechanics
• thermodynamics

• McGill University, Montreal, Canada

  Mario Bunge