A Talk by Prof. Ravi Gomatam at Department of Philosophy, University of Pune. Sponsored and organized by Indian Council for Philosophical Research (ICPR)
There are widely differing viewpoints about the relation between philosophy and science in general, and physics in particular. Nobel Laureate physicist Weinberg famously has opined that philosophy has not contributed anything to the development of physics. Even a philosopher, Quine, said that philosophy of science is philosophy enough. In this talk, we will trace a number of developments in different fields of physics — early Newtonian mechanics, statistical mechanics, relativity theory and quantum mechanics — that has led to still outstanding philosophical problems, such as finiteness versus continuum, probability and causality, simultaneity and duration, and finally measurement and separability. During the talk, Prof. Gomatam deliberated on what it will take for philosophy to contribute to solving these issues within science.
© Ravi V. Gomatam