Monday, December 20, 2010

A physicist's philosophical perspective


Israel Perez has provided his insight into the physical world. I cannot totally agree with the paper.

Abstract:

Without a doubt many problems in physics arise as a consequence of our philosophical conception of the world. In this contribution however we endeavor to alleviate this scenario by putting forward a philosophical approach under which some of the most fundamental problems in modern physics might turn out to be fictitious. To accomplish such task we propound that everything that exists must be made up of matter which not only makes up space and the universe but also is in constant change. For such reason the existence of total emptiness and material discontinuity are rejected. Here physical fields are assumed as a particular state of matter. And time is understood as the result of the intrinsic dynamics of the universe. Furthermore, the infiniteness of the universe is also discussed and its implications are briefly mentioned, e.g., the laws of conservation. Finally, the regularity of the physical laws is questioned. In summary four great problems (from the perspective of physics) are suggested to be deeply studied: (1) What is matter?, (2) Why does the universe change? (3) is the universe infinite in extension? and (4) are there really regular (invariant) laws of physics?

"A physicist’s view of the universe: a philosophical approach" by Israel Perez

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