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Constructivism and Realism in Boltzmann’s Thermodynamics’ Atomism

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Abstract

Ludwig Boltzmann is one of the foremost responsible for the development of modern atomism in thermodynamics. His proposition was revolutionary not only because it brought a new vision for Thermodynamics, merging a statistical approach with Newtonian physics, but also because he produced an entirely new perspective on the way of thinking about and describing physical phenomena. Boltzmann dared to flirt with constructivism and realism simultaneously, by hypothesizing the reality of atoms and claiming an inherent probabilistic nature related to many particles systems. Boltzmann faced criticism from the positivists, who rejected the hypothesis of the atom as a matter of principle, and also from physicists, who rejected the idea of a classical bounded system that does not follow deterministic mechanical laws. We consider that Boltzmann thermodynamics has emerged as a systemic theory that deals with macroscopic bodies using collective variables; it was reformulated to a kinetic theory of gases, and subsequently to statistical mechanics. From the theoretical physical point of view, Boltzmann advocates an approach to thermodynamics based on mechanics and was one of the founders of statistical mechanics, together with ideas by Maxwell, Clausius and Gibbs. Subsequently, statistical mechanics has also influenced the development of quantum mechanics and information theory. Using an evolutionary epistemological perspective as a metaphor to describe the physical entities claimed in Boltzmann propositions, we interpret his work as a selected theory that gained attributes of reality and “survived” during a scientific-contextual competition to be more adapted, in the sense that it was able to better explain physical phenomena, and also generated “descendants”.

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Notes

  1. In 1928 Ralph Hartley, in his article entitled “Transmission of Information”, had already defined information as a measurable quantity, which also referred to the ability of a receiver of an X message to distinguish a sequence of symbols, using the concept H = nlog(X), where X represents the number of possible symbols in a transmission. Likewise, Alan Turing, in 1940, had also worked on similar concepts in his work decoding the German messages during World War II [112] Grime (2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Area of History of Science and Technology and Epistemology, Graduate School of Engineering (COPPE), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Luiz Pinguelli Rosa

  2. Research and Extension Board – DPPE, University Center Serra dos Órgãos, UNIFESO, Teresópolis, Brazil

    Elaine Andrade

  3. Institute of Macromolecules, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Paulo Picciani

  4. Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Discipline of Neuroscience – Laboratory of Neuroengineering and Neurocognition (LaNN), Federal University of São Paulo – UNIFESP, São Paulo, Brazil

    Jean Faber

Authors
  1. Luiz Pinguelli Rosa
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  2. Elaine Andrade
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  3. Paulo Picciani
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  4. Jean Faber
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean Faber.

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Rosa, L.P., Andrade, E., Picciani, P. et al. Constructivism and Realism in Boltzmann’s Thermodynamics’ Atomism. Found Phys 50, 1270–1293 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-020-00372-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-020-00372-2

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