Chaos beyond Order: Overcoming the Quest for Certainty and Conservation in Modern Western Sciences

Cosmos and History 9 (1):35-49 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Chaos theory not only stretched the concept of chaos well beyond its traditional semantic boundaries, but it also challenged fundamental tenets of physics and science in general. Hence, its present and potential impact on the Western worldview cannot be underestimated. I will illustrate the relevance of chaos theory in regard to modern Western thought by tracing the concept of order, which modern thinkers emphasised as chaos’ dichotomic counterpart. In particular, I will underline how the concern of seventeenth-century natural philosophers with order and conservation oriented the production of their concept of nature. Moreover, I will match this resulting world of natural facts with both the classical construction of the cosmos , and the nineteenth-century physico-chemical structure of conservation laws. Furthermore, I will recall the challenges to the deterministic and determinable modern scientific framework. These challenges arose from within the hard sciences, and they were often understood as a temporary lack of knowledge. I will argue that scientists long failed to acknowledge results that were at odds with their expectations, which were deeply engrained in modern Western thought, and which even harked back to the classical theoretical framework. Finally, I will suggest a link between the cultural earthquake that shook Western societies during the ‘long sixties,’ and the questioning of scientific expectations, which chaos theory defied

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The construction of chaos theory.Yvon Gauthier - 2009 - Foundations of Science 14 (3):153-165.
After Eurocentrism: Challenges for the Philosophy of Science.Sandra Harding - 1992 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992:311 - 319.
Has chaos been explained?Jeffrey Koperski - 2001 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (4):683-700.
A Philosophical Evaluation of the Chaos Theory "Revolution".Stephen H. Kellert - 1992 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992:33 - 49.
Bohmian insights into quantum chaos.James T. Cushing - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (3):445.
Did Poincare really discover chaos? [REVIEW]Matthew W. Parker - 1998 - Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 29 (4):575-588.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-07-09

Downloads
48 (#293,064)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references