Philosophy of Science in Steampunk

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around a paper topic for a philosophy of science course, focusing on the EPR paradox and Bell's theorem, as well as the philosophical implications of steampunk literature, particularly H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine." The original poster, lacking a strong background in philosophy, seeks to explore the Kantian aspects of steampunk and its relationship to classical concepts of time and space. However, they express difficulty in developing the idea further and consider shifting to a more classical approach, specifically discussing the works of physicist James Clerk Maxwell and philosopher Grover Maxwell on observation and theoretical entities. Another participant suggests examining the philosophical implications of Wells' work in the context of contemporary physics but acknowledges a lack of understanding of the initial topic. Ultimately, the original poster decides to abandon the steampunk angle, feeling it lacks depth and creativity, and opts to focus on Maxwell's contributions to philosophy and science instead.
oyolasigmaz
Messages
32
Reaction score
0
hi everyone--

for the philosophy of science course, I am planning to write a paper, and wanted to hear opinions about my topic. I am not a philosophy student (math&physics), and haven't taken that much of philosophy courses, so I can't go real deep about any subject, but I want to apply what I have learned throughout the course. I was in general thinking about writing about EPR paradox and bell's theorem, or in other words about the philosophy of quantum (or philosophy of science in early 1900's), then this thing came up.

postpunk is a fantasy genre, generally speaking, which has its setting in late 1800's in britain, where steampower is still in use, and where Verne's or Wells' stories, and technologies, are real. I want to speak about the Kantian nature of such a thing is first of all, because obviously euclidean and Kantian ideas are on top, and quantum concepts like time travel and so are degraded to a more classical nature (such as in Wells' the time machine).

it seemed like a nice idea at first, as I have inspired upon our talk with the professor about frp, but I somewhat ran out of ideas. can anyone suggest some feature of steampunk that can be used in such a paper, in some philosophical content? I am open to any comments anyway.

thanks for reading this long--
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I'm sorry to see that this never got replies. What angle did you end up taking on the topic?
 
I decided to go more classical, and now currently writing about Maxwell and van Fraasen on observation. It wasn't going to be deep enough, I guess.
 
oyolasigmaz said:
I decided to go more classical, and now currently writing about Maxwell and van Fraasen on observation. It wasn't going to be deep enough, I guess.

I would have liked to have engaged, but I didn't really understand your subject very well. I was thinking along the lines of identifying the aspects of Well's time machine that were consistent with some philosophical implications of theoretical physics of that time period, then identifying philosophical aspects that seem inconsistent with the theory of that time period. Then, survey the scene from the standpoint of contemporary physics. But, you probably were not interested in pursuing the Wells example.

Maxwell is certainly an interesting subject. He was great as an observationalist but also provided one of the greatest examples of developing a theory out of shear intuition and intellect--and the application of mathematical derivations (Maxwell's equations). This had implications for the philosophy of physics. And this of course caught Einstein's attention, and, noticing the curious implications about the speed of light, drove him to pursue his theory of Special Relativity.
 
Last edited:
Oh, I'm sorry I didn't specify that Maxwell is Grover Maxwell, an American philosopher of science (I just noticed there is not a wikipedia entry of him). In his "the Ontological Status of Theoretical Entities," he argues against different types of empiricism, and gives a solid defense of realism. Van Fraasen, afterwards, defines his own "constructive empiricism," which is neither empiricism (in the classical sense) nor realism (well, there is no need anyway). You can read some here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_empiricism

About the steampunk, I guess some of your thoughts would have been very useful to me, if I were to write. Well's time machine would have been an example, and what I was originally thinking was something like "how would steampunk affect the course of philosophy of science?" For instance, Kantians would have been very happy, with their Euclidean geometry and classical mechanics dominating.

Anyway, I decided to abandon this steampunk idea, though I liked it at first. It wasn't going to be philosophically creative, but more like a collection of ideas (sure there can be a creative one but I felt like I am not capable, about this topic).

Thanks for your interest, though, it is very much appreciated.
 
Just ONCE, I wanted to see a post titled Status Update that was not a blatant, annoying spam post by a new member. So here it is. Today was a good day here in Northern Wisconsin. Fall colors are here, no mosquitos, no deer flies, and mild temperature, so my morning run was unusually nice. Only two meetings today, and both went well. The deer that was road killed just down the road two weeks ago is now fully decomposed, so no more smell. Somebody has a spike buck skull for their...
Thread 'RIP George F. Smoot III (1945-2025)'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smoot https://physics.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/george-smoot-iii https://apc.u-paris.fr/fr/memory-george-fitzgerald-smoot-iii https://elements.lbl.gov/news/honoring-the-legacy-of-george-smoot/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2006/smoot/facts/ https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200611/nobel.cfm https://inspirehep.net/authors/988263 Structure in the COBE Differential Microwave Radiometer First-Year Maps (Astrophysical Journal...
Back
Top