How happy it is to recall Imre Lakatos. Now, fifteen years after his death, his intelligence, wit, generosity are vivid. In the Preface to the book of Essays in Memory of Imre Lakatos, the editors wrote:... Lakatos was a man in search of rationality in all of its forms. He thought he had found it in the historical development of scientific knowledge, yet he also saw rationality endangered everywhere. To honor Lakatos is to honor his sharp and aggressive criticism as (...) well as his humane warmth and his quick wit. He was a person to love and to struggle with. The book before us carries old and new friends of that Lakatosian spirit further into the issues which he wanted to investigate. That the new friends include a dozen scientific, historical and philosophical scholars from Greece would have pleased Lakatos very much, and with an essay from China, he would have smiled all the more. But the key lies in the quality of these papers, and in the imaginative organization of the conference at Thessaloniki in summer 1986 which worked so well. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the ongoing university reform in Russia by underlining historical roots and peculiarities of its system of higher education. It is pointed out that the Soviet model of economy, political and ideological bias deeply impacted the university system and enforced its estrangement from foreign universities. A limited number of the best Soviet higher education institutions which provided a military-oriented education and fundamental research were re-casted along the so called “PhysTech” system after the end of the WWII. As a (...) result of this system, higher education and R&D in Russia is not presently competitive in the educational international market. Closing the gap between Russian universities and the “global university” approach and raising university competitiveness are the main objectives of the current reform in science and education. As universities are considered core actors of knowledge economy, a new set of federal and national research universities was created. However, reform faces numerous conceptual and institutional obstacles, risks and constraints are significant, and positive outcomes elusive. (shrink)

In Neither Physics Nor Chemistry, Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simoes examine the evolution of quantum chemistry into an autonomous discipline, tracing its development from the publication of early papers in the 1920s to the dramatic changes ...

A number of issues related to the challenges menacing the future of history of science are discussed. It has become increasingly more difficult to engage scientists in the ways historians of science deal with their subjects, while at the same time the implicit historiography of science textbooks has created an ideology among scientists that makes such engagement even more strenuous. An additional complication is the deep belief of many scientists in anachronism. Another threatening prospect is the instrumentalist view held by (...) funding bodies whereby the social sciences and humanities have to explore ways in which they can respond successfully to societal needs. (shrink)

(1984). Some methodological and historical considerations in low temperature physics: The case of superconductivity 1911–57. Annals of Science: Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 135-149.

It is not possible to dismiss the atomistic paradigm because the proposed elementary particles are too many (and, hence, it is claimed, they do not provide a simple account of nature) or because it is not possible to observe quarks in an isolated manner. The developments in particle physics have brought about radical changes to our notions of simplicity and observability, and in this paper we elaborate on these changes. It is as a result of these changes that the present (...) situation in elementary particle physics justify us to claim that we have indeed reached a level of explanation where the constituent particles (quarks, leptons, gluons, and intermediate bosons) used for the explanation of the various phenomena considered to be delineating a particular level in the descriptive framework of the physical phenomena and a specific stratum in the organization of nature, can be regarded as elementary. (shrink)

Die Frage der Erhaltung der Parität bei der Wechselwirkung von Elementarteilchen, der Vorschlag ihrer Verletzung, die experimentelle Bestätigung dieses Vorschlags und die daraus sich ergebenden Folgerungen, die zur Formulierung der mathematischen Struktur der schwachen Wechselwirkungen führten, sind die wichtigsten Entwicklungen in der Elementarteilchenphysik während der Periode von 1953 bis 1958. Vorliegender Aufsatz versucht die rationale Rekonstruktion dieser Periode und des Forschungsprogrammes, welches als eines der progressivsten Programme der modernen Physik angesehen wird. Hierzu benutzen wir eine modifizierte Fassung von Poppers tetradischem (...) Schema als auch die Bemerkungen von Lakatos über gewisse Aspekte der Methodologie von Forschungsprogrammen. Es wird unterstrichen, daß die Dynamik der positiven Heuristik derart war, daß die theoretische Forschung fortgeführt werden konnte, trotz experimenteller Resultate, die nur als Gegenbeweise gegen die vorgeschlagene Struktur der schwachen Wechselwirkungen angesehen werden konnten. (shrink)

In this paper we attempt to investigate the historical and methodological aspects of the developments related to superfluid helium, concentrating on the period between 1941 and 1955. During this period, the various developments constituted a series of steps towards redefining and refining the two-fluid concept devised to explain the unexpected macroscopic behaviour of superfluid helium. The idea that superfluids are essentially ‘quantum structures on a macroscopic scale’ functioned as a heuristic principle which guided the theoretical physicists engaged in the above (...) research programme. (shrink)

Supraleitfähigkeit und Superfluidität sind die einzigen bekannten makroskopischen Quantenphänomene. Ihre Untersuchung liefert interessante Hinweise, um einige der Fragen zu verstehen, die mit den Grenzen der Gültigkeit der Quantenmechanik verbunden sind. In diesem Aufsatz wollen wir den Prozeß entzifferen, durch den ein beobachtetes unerwartetes Phänomen in ein physikalisches Problem übergeführt wird, und wir zeigen die kontinuierliche Reinterpretation der Begriffe, um eine zufriedenstellende Erklärung der Supraleitfähigkeit und Superfluidität zu erreichen.

Der Aufsatz versucht die verschiedenen theoretischen und experimentellen Tests, denen Theorien unterworfen werden, zu kategorisieren. Kriterien sind dabei weder die verschiedenen Arten der experimentellen Anordnungen, noch die verschiedenen Wege, um die Messungen durchzuführen. Stattdessen wird der Begriff des Experimentierens ausgeweitet, und es werden die drei Hauptkategorien der Theorienprüfungen analysiert. Es sind dies: Eine Menge von theoretischen Bedingungen, die der Theorie auferlegt werden, um die größtmögliche Information und heuristische Hilfsmittel zu erhalten; eine Menge von allgemeinen theoretischen Zugängen, um entscheiden zu können, (...) welche Arten von experimentellen Tests für die spezielle Theorie am günstigsten sind; schließlich die Arten der experimentellen Tests. (shrink)

Discussing the relationship of mathematics to chemistry is closely related to the emergence of physical chemistry and of quantum chemistry. We argue that, perhaps, the most significant issue that the 'mathematization of chemistry' has historically raised is not so much methodological, as it is philosophical: the discussion over the ontological status of theoretical entities which were introduced in the process. A systematic study of such an approach to the mathematization of chemistry may, perhaps, contribute to the realist/antirealist debate. To this (...) end, in this paper we briefly discuss Lewis' introduction of fugacity and activity to his chemical thermodynamics and more fully analyze the issues surrounding the appropriation of resonance by Linus Pauling into quantum chemistry, particularly as these issues arose in organic chemistry as discussed by George W. Wheland. (shrink)

The atomistic paradigm of high energy physics cannot anymore be dismissed because the proposed elementary particles are too many or because it is not possible to observe quarks in an isolated manner. The developments in particle physics have brought about radical changes to our notions of simplicity and observability, and in this paper we elaborate on these changes. It is as a result of these changes that the present situation in elementary particle physics justifies our claim that we have indeed (...) reached a level of explanation where the constituent particles used for the explanation of the various phenomena considered to be delineating a particular level in the descriptive framework of the physical phenomena and a specific stratum in the organization of nature, can be regarded as elementary. (shrink)

Writing the history of elementary particle physics has all the problems common to writing the history of any other subject “in the making”. There is, however, an additional characteristic, unique to this branch of physics. The development of particle physics, unlike the situation in other branches of physics, reveals a continuously changing picture of what its object of investigation is, of what, in other words, the things we call particles are and how elementary they should be considered. The history of (...) elementary particle physics is, in a way, the history of the continuous reinterpretation of both the ontological and methodological status of the notion of elementarity. Hence, examining the history of elementary particle physics is also an attempt to explicate this changing collective consciousness of the scientific community about the elementarity of particles. In studying, therefore, (practically any aspect of) the history of elementary particle physics, one has to be sensitive about a number of philosophical, and primarily methodological issues which have acquired an added significance due to the relatively recent and mainly theoretical developments. (shrink)

This article discusses the ways the hegemonic ideology is further consolidated through the popularization of science. The issues surrounding science popularization are intimately linked with the utopias such popularizations construct, the ideology they propagate, and in the case of molecular biology, with the issue of reductionism which appears to be so prevalent in the popular accounts of molecular biology. In such a context, reductionism is no longer a philosophical issue, but a political issue. The article, also, attempts to bring forth (...) the differences between the rather prevalent notion of European Science and that of Science in Europe. (shrink)

Contribution to a symposium on Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões, Neither Physics nor Chemistry, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In this paper we will discuss some of the issues related to the attempts of Ralph Howard Fowler and Nevil Vincent Sidgwick to create a legitimizing space for quantum and theoretical chemistry in Britain. Although neither Fowler nor Sidgwick made original contributions to quantum chemistry, they followed closely the developments in the discipline, participated in meetings and discussions and delivered lectures, talks and addresses, where methodological topics, ontological questions and implicitly the problem of autonomy of the new discipline vis-à-vis both (...) physics and chemistry were taken to be pressing issues. In particular, they encouraged young people to work within the nascent discipline. Viewing quantum chemistry as a branch of applied mathematics became an emblematic characteristic of the practice of the new discipline in Great Britain. (shrink)

In three volumes, a distinguished group of scholars from a variety of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, the humanities and the arts contribute essays in honor of Robert S. Cohen, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The range of the essays, as well as their originality, and their critical and historical depth, pay tribute to the extraordinary scope of Professor Cohen's intellectual interests, as a scientist-philosopher and a humanist, and also to his engagement in the world of (...) social and political practice. In Science, Politics and Social Practice, (Volume II of Essays in Honor of Robert S. Cohen), an international group of scholars -- philosophers, sociologists, historians, and political scientists -- discuss issues at the cutting edge of contemporary social and political thought, and its bearing on science. Several essays discuss the relations of Marxism to science, and specifically, to the philosophies of science of Carnap and Popper, as well as Soviet Marxism, and the effects of Stalinism on Soviet science. There are also essays on the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, on questions of method and aim in historical narrative, on the issue of cultural relativism, and more. (shrink)

Book Review of E. Thomas Strom & Angela K. Wilson : Pioneers of Quantum Chemistry, Washington/DC 2013.