Thermodynamics History And Philosophy Facts Trends Debates

This book deals with different modern topics in probability, statistics and operations research. It has been written lucidly in a novel way. Wherever necessary, the theory is explained in great detail, with suitable illustrations. Numerous references are given, so that young researchers who want to start their work in a particular area will benefit immensely from the book.The contributors are distinguished statisticians and operations research experts from all over the world.

The July 1990 conference aimed to review some main aspects of history of thermodynamics, to find alternative paradigms in thermodynamics and to characterize the alternative histories leading to them. This approach demanded the simultaneous application of physical, historical, and philosophical points of view. Thirty-eight contributions are presented along with discussion and concluding remarks. Produced from typescripts. Acidic paper. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book introduces physics students and teachers to the historical development of the kinetic theory of gases, by providing a collection of the most important contributions by Clausius, Maxwell and Boltzmann, with introductory surveys explaining their significance. In addition, extracts from the works of Boyle, Newton, Mayer, Joule, Helmholtz, Kelvin and others show the historical context of ideas about gases, energy and irreversibility. In addition to five thematic essays connecting the classical kinetic theory with 20th century topics such as indeterminism and interatomic forces, there is an extensive international bibliography of historical commentaries on kinetic theory, thermodynamics, etc. published in the past four decades. The book will be useful to historians of science who need primary and secondary sources to be conveniently available for their own research and interpretation, along with the bibliography which makes it easier to learn what other historians have already done on this subject. Contents:The Nature of Gases and of Heat (Boyle, Newton, Bernoulli, Gregory, Mayer, Joule, von Helmholtz, Clausius, Maxwell)Irreversible Processes (Maxwell, Boltzmann, Thomson, Poincaré, Zermelo)Historical Discussions by Stephen G BrushA Guide to Historical Commentaries: Kinetic Theory of Gases, Thermodynamics, and Related Topics Readership: Graduate and research students, teachers, lecturers and historians of physics. Keywords:Kinetic Theory;Gases;Boyle's Law;Gas Laws;Viscosity;Diffusion;Forces between Atoms and Molecules;Interatomic Forces;Ergodic Theorem;Ergodicity;Heat Conduction;Irreversibility;Indeterminism;Thermodynamics;First Law of Thermodynamics;Second Law of Thermodynamics;Third Law of Thermodynamics;Law of Conservation of Energy;Maxwell Velocity Distribution;Boltzmann's H Theorem;Boltzmann's (Transport) Equation;Reversibility Paradox;Recurrence Paradox;Statistical MechanicsReviews:“One of the most important contributions of this volume is the bibliography in Part IV … This is a useful book and should be on the shelves of all kinetic theorists and statistical mechanics.” Journal of Statistical Physics “This book will be useful both for historical research and for students studying the history of physics.”Notes and Records of the Royal Society “It is valuable to have the work in print again, since some of the originals are not always easily accessible and all who have struggled, for example, with Boltzmann's German will welcome accurate translations … The whole book is to be welcomed as an aid to those undertaking research or otherwise interested in exploring these fields.”AMBIX

Modern physical science is constituted by specialized scientific fields rooted in experimental laboratory work and in rational and mathematical representations. Contemporary scientific explanation is rigorously differentiated from religious interpretation, although, to be sure, scientists sometimes do the philosophical work of interpreting the metaphysics of space, time, and matter. However, it is rare that either theologians or philosophers convincingly claim that they are doing the scientific work of physical scientists and mathematicians. The rigidity of these divisions and differentiations is relatively new. Modern physical science was invented slowly and gradually through interactions of the aims and contents of mathematics, theology, and natural philosophy since the seventeenth century. In essays ranging in focus from seventeenth-century interpretations of heavenly comets to twentieth-century explanations of tracks in bubble chambers, ten historians of science demonstrate metaphysical and theological threads continuing to underpin the epistemology and practice of the physical sciences and mathematics, even while they became disciplinary specialties during the last three centuries. The volume is prefaced by tributes to Erwin N. Hiebert, whose teaching and scholarship have addressed and inspired attention to these issues.

Hermeneutics was elaborated as a specific art of understanding in humanities. The discovered paradigmatic, historical characteristics of scientific knowledge, and the role of rhetoric, interpretation and contextuality enabled us to use similar arguments in natural sciences too. In this way a new research field, the hermeneutics of science emerged based upon the works of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger and Gadamer. A dialogue between philosophers and scientists begins in this volume on hermeneutic approaches to physics, biology, ethology, mathematics and cognitive science. Scientific principles, methodologies, discourse, language, and metaphors are analyzed, as well as the role of the lay public and the legitimation of science. Different hermeneutical-phenomenological approaches to perception, experiments, methods, discovery and justification and the genesis of science are presented. Hermeneutics shed a new light on the incommensurability of paradigms, the possibility of translation and the historical understanding of science.