Examples and Advantages of Axiomatics

Abstract

We shall presently exhibit two comparatively simple specimens of physical axiomatics. It must be emphasised that they are bound to differ in important respects from axiom systems in pure mathematics. Indeed, while the latter define whole families of formal objects or structures, such as lattices or topological spaces, our axiom systems aim at characterising (not defining) species of concrete objects, namely physical systems, which supposedly lead an independent existence. Hence while the mathematical axiomatiser spins his web without any concern for the actual world, the physical axiomatiser is earth-bound.