Symbol and Physical Knowledge

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XV

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Sources for the History of the Concept of Symbol from Leibniz to Cassirer

      • Massimo Ferrari

      Pages 3-32

   3. On the Use and Character of Symbols in Modern Physical Theories

      • Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu

      Pages 33-72

3. Views on Symbol in the Philosophy of Sciences

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 73-73

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   2. The Symbol in the Theory of Science: Duhem’s Alleged Instrumentalism or Conventionalism and the Continuity of Scientific Development

      • Karl-Norbert Ihmig

      Pages 75-96

   3. Beyond Realism. Symbolism in the Philosophy of Science by Charles S. Peirce and Ernst Cassirer

      • Enno Rudolph

      Pages 97-108

   4. Heinrich Hertz and the Concept of a Symbol

      • Andreas Hüttemann

      Pages 109-121

4. On the Symbolic Structure of Physics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123

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   2. Shifting Symbolic Structures and Changing Theories: On the Non-Translatability and Empirical Comparability of Incommensurable Theories

      • Martin Carrier

      Pages 125-148

   3. Symbol and Intuition in Modern Physics

      • Brigitte Falkenburg

      Pages 149-175

   4. Idealizations in Physics

      • Andreas Hüttemann

      Pages 177-192

   5. Symbolizing States and Events in Quantum Mechanics

      • Carsten Held

      Pages 193-209

   6. The Semiotics of “Postmodern” Physics

      • Hans J. Pirner

      Pages 211-229

5. Back Matter

   Pages 230-230

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The question of the symbolic structure of physics is implicitly involved in any discussion about the character of physical knowledge and the development of physical theories. Actually many discussions would greatly profit from an explicit reference to and an investigation of this question, and much confusion may be avoided in this way. A book directly addressing the use and character of symbols in physics may help provide a point of view which is in the back­ ground of any consideration in the theory of knowledge and which is, to be sure, very relevant today, but - strangely enough - often seems to be missing as an explicit and central perspective in the present epistemological debates. The concept of symbol has different meanings. Its wide diffusion in various cultural fields such as religion, mythology, art, and psychoanalysis, constitutes the best proof of its semantic variety, but also of the danger of using it in too vague a way. We start here from the concept of symbol conceived in the general sense of a sign or a material medium which is able, on the one hand, to communicate mental or conceptual contents and, on the other hand, to des­ ignate things or situations in the world. In this way symbols make it possible for human knowledge to "translate" the mental activity grasping the real­ ity in conceptual frames, formal or natural languages, scientific propositions, theories and so on.

• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• Natur
• Symbol
• knowledge
• mechanics
• philosophy of science
• quantum mechanics
• science
• subject
• theory of science

"The book has the important merit of calling our attention to the fundamental problem of sorting out what in physical theories comes from ourselves (the a priori, symbolic, conventional part) and what comes from nature, a question that we are far from having definitely solved." (International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 17/1, 2003)

• Dipartimento di Storia e Metodologie Comparate, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

  Massimo Ferrari

• Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft (FESt), Heidelberg, Germany

  Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu

• Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

  Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu

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