Philosophy Definition and 326 Threads

Hello everyone, I’m delighted to join this community! My name is Shan Gao, and I’m a philosopher of physics with a deep interest in the foundations of quantum mechanics. I’m currently a professor at Shanxi University in China, where I work at the Research Center for Philosophy of Science and...

hello I enjoy pondering ideas about life and the universe but it gets lonely just thinking by yourself and sometimes it feels like ideas need to be tested by a group or given up to a group to be pondered over by others. So hopefully I can contribute something interesting of my own as well as...

Are quantum physicists hopeful that a theory of everything can derive neccesity out of quantum fluctuations or whatever is said to have been the most fundamental existence? The reason I ask is because the deepest question in philosophy is why does anything exist at all. But it doesn't seem to...

I am interpreting the title of this rubric rather broadly; if a mentor decides that the question is inappropriate, then I will not object to it being removed. In his book "Irrational Man", William Barrett starts Chapter 1, "The story is told by Kierkegaard of the absent-minded man so...

I always have had a burning desire to understand what reality is and how it has come about, Have studied philosophy (on my own not academically) for many years and this led my to compare what I gleaned from there to physics, especially the both the theories of Special and General Relativity and...

I was reading a Nature article by Dean Keith Simonton speaking about how science seems to have slowed and there really isn’t such a thing as a real genius anymore. He defines a true genius as “A real paradigm shifter. A Renaissance human who could completely change the way we understand the...

Hey all, glad to find and join this community. I'm 28 years old, excelled in math and science in high school but because of mental health and life circumstances took a 10 year hiatus from education to focus on healing, primarily using art a means to understand the "self". This sent me down a...

If the universe is entirely deterministic, would that not necessarily connect the beginning to the end in such a way that they exchange each other? And as such, wouldn't it mean that we live in Leibnitz's best of all worlds practically speaking, simply because it can't be any different? ...

What are some good arguments against mathematics being discovered (or for it being invented)?

For much of physics, its language is fundamentally math, but to a certain point, does philosophical thinking ever play an important part in creating or exploring physics? It would seem, at least to me, that there is some significant overlap, given that much of understanding physics can't quite...

Hi. I'm an independent researcher within the realm of philosophy and the sciences. I am a huge questioner, so I continually doubt (or way more than "second guess") what I have accepted as truth. This questioning impulse sometimes "serve me well", as I may stumble across more accurate ideas...

Flipboard, Big Think URL, Astro-Physics interest.

I am frequently contemplating the size of the universe. Logic tells me that existence cannot is end as there really can’t be anything as anti-existence but if the universe loops back on itself; it may not be an issue. Is there a possible way in the far future to semi-accurately measure its size...

Hello all you clever people, I was wondering if you guys could answer a question for me regarding special relativity and the none existence of time. At least in the sense that the block universe people believe. So I'm writing as if the block universe is the correct interpretation What does...

Hi all! It's been a decade since I graduated with a bachelor's in philosophy. I went to an ivy planning double major with physics, but I ultimately dropped the latter after my introductory courses and graduated with a poor GPA (2.7). To save you the sob story, I basically had no ability to cope...

I wondered about this question. According to me, there 2 ways you can look at it. A system can have energy, or a system is energy. Next to that, the idea of energy, the definition of energy seems a bit vague to me. There are so many types of energy, but what is it really? A system can have...

https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~mhe/papers/omniscient-journal-revised.pdf Might be my favorite article I’ve ever came across I would like to see some interpretations on it to broaden my currently very narrow point of view… Have fun! -oliver

Summary:: When experimenting to improve a theory, account for the fact that your experimental equipment is made using the very same theory which you are trying to improve. 1.) It would take many decades (~ 80 years?) to design and make equipment entirely using a proposed new theory which has...

Bernard Stiegler said that technology is an evolving organism that never ends as long as their are people; yet as an aspiring futurist; I feel that I’ve reached the limit to all the different concepts for technology. All the futurism stuff is repetitive because their are only so many things a...

There is an interpretation of quantum mechanics out there, and I was not sure if physicists take this seriously, or if it's one of those woo-woo popular misunderstandings of quantum mechanics. So I am posing it to our esteemed physicists here. It says that there can be all sorts of universes...

Hello I have tried asking this different ways, here. I do not know exactly what I am asking. So I am hoping to try again. Say we have a differential equation for a multi-body system. We cannot solve it because of the coupling (too difficult). So, we turn to a modal analysis (eigen value...

Mary Boas attempts to explain this by pointing out that the situation cannot arise because charges will have to be placed individually, and in an order, and that order would represent the order we sum in. That at any point the unplaced infinite charges would form an infinite divergent series...

I hear that philosophy refuse to "relativity concepts"(e.g relativity moral).Relativity theory says about the relativity of spacetime.I do not understand why special relativity does not contradict with general philosophy?(I know the theory Idea Form of Plato)

Jim explores what are the most popular interpretations of quantum mechanics and how we might need to be a little more specific when we talk about ‘reality’. Excellent layman's explanation of the Bell Inequality experiments.

I usually don't read papers on philosophy of quantum field theory, but this one is really good: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/8890/ In particular, the prelude which I quote here is a true gem: "Once upon a time there was a community of physicists. This community be- lieved, and had good...

I have only found so far on the web forums about physics and math. I have questions about philosophy and history that I would like to ask. Does anyone know of good webforums where I can do that? (Since that's forbidden on here :wink:)

I know zilch about both of the above. But I thought maybe this could be discussed a bit...and I could learn something. (Me, who got thru high school with a C- average and no college). About a year ago I submitted a question similar to this... and the moderator shot it down as not germane to...

As a quarantine hobby I've been learning about Grete Hermann and the early history of QM. I find her early philisophical contribution to be interesting, but I lack the background to put it into a modern context. A brief description can be found in the arxiv paper: Grete Hermann: An early...

Summary:: Looking for recommendations Are there any books on the philosophical implications of quantum theory by people who know what they're talking about?

I read these lines from the book Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein- "Gradually the conviction gained recognition that all knowledge about things is exclusively a working-over of the raw material furnished by the senses." what I interpret from is that knowledge is obtained by observing...

I'm studying physics with math as a minor and I'm currently at 4th semester. Don't get me wrong, I love studying physics. But I'm starting to feel that something is missing. Most of my courses are really focused on learning the formalism and technical methods, so we are able to solve different...

I'd like to point to the following paper: C. Rovelli, Physics needs philosophy. Philosophy needs physics. Foundations of Physics 48 (2018), 481-491. From the abstract:

Is there any evidence that Panpsychism may hold its own in the quantum world? What quantum physics principals violate the ideology of Panpsychism? This is meant to be fun. I am curious what other people think.

Did Schrödinger believe that contradictory or inconsistent things could exist in reality?

Hey, I'm a senior in a high school in Canada and I'm thinking of pursuing mathematics and philosophy in university. I'm quite interested in mathematics and philosophy but I am also interested in lots of other topics. The main reasons that I want to study math and philosophy at university is...

Summary: CordFriebe et al. Has anybody read this book? I am wading through this tome for the second time. Was wondering what others whom might have read it thought. https://www.amazon.com/dp/3319783548/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Hi, I'm applying for 2020 entry in the UK (coming from Poland) and the subject that I'm most interested in is BSc in Physics and Philosophy (well maybe next to Natural Sciences degree, but I feel like that's out of my grasp), with the intent to later pursue MSc, PhD and ultimately an academic...

Is this the proper thread to discuss the philosophy of science/physics (metaphysics/ontology/epistemology)? How about the philosophy of mathematics and logic? As a side note that I'm not sure if this information really relates to the connection between science maths and philosophy, but in my...

I am wondering which you think is the foundation of all sciences, I have no real understanding of either but I have a general idea of it I think so please offer your opinion!

I get new notification from new scientist usually about some virus or some weird anthropology theory. Once in a while a physics subject and this time I got this "https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132220-100-schrodingers-kittens-new-thought-experiment-breaks-quantum-theory/" Can somebody...

The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the amount of useful energy in an isolated system tends to decrease. Does this imply that mankind will reach a point where it cannot longer use any kind of energy? If so, do we have an estimate of how long it will be necessary for to haven't useful...

I'd like to point to the book The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics by C. Friebe et al., Springer 2018. It contains many topics usually underrepresented in foundational discussions of quantum physics, in chapters on many-particle systems and quantum field theory. It also has in its last chapter a...

Hello, I am by nature philosophically oriented, whatever that means. I think it means something like the fact that I can't turn down the volume on my philosophical inclinations. Anyway, the forum guidelines/rules state the following in regards to philosophical topics: Philosophical...

There's a phenomenon over at Wikipedia. Namely, all or most (?) topics converge to "philosophy". Is there a name or some kind of coherent explanation for this phenomenon? Is it just simply the case that most branches of science originated from philosophy, and this is apparent in how Wikipedia...

what the differences between actual infinity to potentially infinity?

I'd really like to know. :) Typically, practitioners of science treat the concerns raised by these disciplines in a very defensive manner. I don't mean to use "Philosophy" and "Sociology" interchangeably here, although that wouldn't be entirely wrong. In short, I'm really only interested in...

Dear everyone, So I am looking into the broad topic "Philosophy of mathematics." Do you guys have any interesting leads that relate to the topic I can follow? I have no particular direction I want to go in, I am just looking for cool stuff, ideas, and people you think are interesting with...

Could you guys put Philosophy, Sociology, History and Arts in the Homework sections? I would be very appreciated.

I have recently been very intrigued with philosophy, I have heard some keywords and basic concepts in philosophy before but nothing too serious. I wanted to self-study philosophy (undergraduate curriculum) in the sense like philosophy majors, can anyone recommend on how to proceed? I have a...

Hello,Lately, I have been interested in philosophy and in particular the branches of philosophy where there is a tie with mathematics and physics. From this point, I think the best branch to start studying would be the most robust one for scientists. i.e Logic. But I am having a problem finding...