The definability of physical concepts

Abstract

Our main purpose here is to make some considerations about the definability of physical concepts like mass, force, time, space, spacetime, and so on. Our starting motivation is a collection of supposed definitions of closed system in the literature of physics and philosophy of physics. So, we discuss the problem of definitions in theoretical physics from the point of view of modern theories of definition. One of our main conclusions is that there are different kinds of definitions in physics that demand different approaches. Within this context, we strongly advocate the use of the axiomatic method in order to discuss some issues concerning definitions.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 93,296

External links

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

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
2 (#1,819,493)

6 months
133 (#31,570)

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

Representation and Invariance of Scientific Structures.Patrick Suppes - 2002 - CSLI Publications (distributed by Chicago University Press).
Suppes predicates for classical physics.N. C. A. Da Costa & F. A. Doria - 1992 - In Javier Echeverría, Andoni Ibarra & Thomas Mormann (eds.), The space of mathematics: philosophical, epistemological, and historical explorations. New York: W. de Gruyter.
Theory of definition.Arthur Pap - 1964 - Philosophy of Science 31 (1):49-54.

View all 7 references / Add more references