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6Benjamin Johnson, Making Ammonia: Fritz Haber, Walther Nernst, and the Nature of Scientific Discovery Cham: Springer Nature, 2022. Pp. xvi + 278. ISBN 978-3-030-85531-4. £44.99 (hardcover) (review)British Journal for the History of Science 1-2. forthcoming.
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10What Have the Historians of Quantum Physics Ever Done for Us?Centaurus 58 (4): 327-346. 2016.Once one of the main protagonists of history of science, the historiography on quantum theory has recently gone through a process of reconfiguration of methods, research questions and epistemological framework. In this paper, I review the recent developments and propose some reflections on its future evolution.
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From classical to quantum physics. Theoretical challenges by experimental physics : radiation and its interaction with matter / Shaul Katzir. Challenging the boundaries between classical and quantum physics : the case of optical dispersion / Marta Jordi Taltavull. Putting the quantum to work : Otto Sackur's pioneering exploits in the quantum theory of gases (review)In Shaul Katzir, Christoph Lehner & Jürgen Renn (eds.), Traditions and transformations in the history of quantum physics: HQ-3, Third International Conference on the History of Quantum Physics, Berlin, June 28-July 2, 2010, Edition Open Access. 2013.
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2The Bumpy Road: Max Planck from Radiation Theory to the Quantum (1896-1906)Imprint: Springer. 2015.This book examines the different areas of knowledge, traditions, and conceptual resources that contributed to the building of Max Planck's theory of radiation. It presents an insightful comparative analysis that not only sheds light upon a fundamental chapter in the history of modern physics, but also enlarges our understanding of how theoreticians work. Coverage offers a deep investigation into the technical aspects behind the theory and extends in time the notion of quantum revolution. It also…Read more
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The Odd Couple: Boltzmann, Planck and the Application of Statistics to Physics (1900-1913)Annalen Der Physik 18 (2-3): 81-101. 2009.
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141The recent use of typicality in statistical mechanics for foundational purposes has stirred an important debate involving both philosophers and physicists. While this debate customarily focuses on technical issues, in this paper I try to approach the problem from an epistemological angle. The discussion is driven by two questions: (1) What does typicality add to the concept of measure? (2) What kind of explanation, if any, does typicality yield? By distinguishing the notions of `typicality-as-va…Read more
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8Mechanistic Slumber vs. Statistical Insomnia: The Early Phase of Boltzmann’s H-theorem (1868-1877)European Physical Journal - H 36 (3): 353-378. 2011.An intricate, long, and occasionally heated debate surrounds Boltzmann’s H-theorem (1872) and his combinatorial interpretation of the second law (1877). After almost a century of devoted and knowledgeable scholarship, there is still no agreement as to whether Boltzmann changed his view of the second law after Loschmidt’s 1876 reversibility argument or whether he had already been holding a probabilistic conception for some years at that point. In this paper, I argue that there was no abrupt stati…Read more
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285Bridging Conceptual Gaps: The Kolmogorov-Sinai EntropyIsonomía. Revista de Teoría y Filosofía Del Derecho. forthcoming.The Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy is a fairly exotic mathematical concept which has recently aroused some interest on the philosophers’ part. The most salient trait of this concept is its working as a junction between such diverse ambits as statistical mechanics, information theory and algorithm theory. In this paper I argue that, in order to understand this very special feature of the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, is essential to reconstruct its genealogy. Somewhat surprisingly, this story takes us as f…Read more
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192It is often claimed that epistemic bubbles and echo chambers foster post-truth by filtering our access to information and manipulating our epistemic attitude. In this paper, I try to add a further level of analysis by adding the issue of belief formation. Building on cognitive psychology work, I argue for a dual-system theory according to which beliefs derive from a default system and a critical system. One produces beliefs in a quasi-automatic, effortless way, the other in a slow, effortful way…Read more
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3Eric Johnson, Anxiety and the Equation: Understanding Boltzmann's Entropy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018. Pp. ix + 179. ISBN 978-0-2620-3861-4. $22.95/£17.99 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 52 (4): 721-722. 2019.
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9Schooling the Quantum Generations: Textbooks and Quantum Cultures from the 1910s to the 1930sBerichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 42 (4): 290-306. 2019.Ever since Thomas Kuhn's influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), textbooks have suffered a bad reputation. They have been accused of distorting—at times purportedly—history and of feeding students with an unacceptably simplified and optimistic view of science. This attitude started to change only in recent times. With the increase of attention paid not only to how theories are conceived, but also how they are practiced, disseminated, and appropriated, historians have rehabili…Read more
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16The foundational role of ergodic theoryFoundations of Science 11 (4): 323-347. 2005.The foundation of statistical mechanics and the explanation of the success of its methods rest on the fact that the theoretical values of physical quantities (phase averages) may be compared with the results of experimental measurements (infinite time averages). In the 1930s, this problem, called the ergodic problem, was dealt with by ergodic theory that tried to resolve the problem by making reference above all to considerations of a dynamic nature. In the present paper, this solution will be a…Read more
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9Max Planck and the 'Constants of Nature'Annals of Science 58 (2): 137-162. 2001.When at the end of the 1900s Planck introduced the constant h into the black-body radiation law together with constant k, he provided no explanation of either its meaning or why it had that particular value. He simply introduced it. In reality the history of the constant was far from straightforward. Planck was confident enough to introduce it like this because he had been working on the question for over a year. In this paper we reconstruct the process that began with the first two constants (c…Read more
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14Thinking the uncertainty: Invariance and pluralism in Patrick suppes'view of probabilityEpistemologia 29 379-384. 2006.
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6This paper analyzes the epistemological significance of the problem of induction. In the first section, the foundation of this problem is identified in the thesis of gnoseological dualism: we only know our representations as separate from ‘the world itself’. This thesis will be countered by the thesis of gnoseological monism. In the second section, the implications of Hume’s skeptical thesis will be highlighted and it will be demonstrated how the point of view of gnoseological monism can offer a…Read more
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11J.L. Heilbron, Physics: A Short History from Quintessence to Quarks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 224. ISBN 978-0-19-874685-0. £10.99 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 49 (3): 474-476. 2016.
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170Most philosophical accounts on scientific theories are affected by three dogmas or ingrained attitudes. These dogmas have led philosophers to choose between analyzing the internal structure of theories or their historical evolution. In this paper, I turn these three dogmas upside down. I argue (i) that mathematical practices are not epistemically neutral, (ii) that the morphology of theories can be very complex, and (iii) that one should view theoretical knowledge as the combination of internal …Read more
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9The aim of this paper is not only to deal with the concept of infinity, but also to develop some considerations about the epistemological status of cosmology. These problems are connected because from an epistemological point of view, cosmology, meant as the study of the universe as a whole, is not merely a physical (or empirical) science. On the contrary it has an unavoidable metaphysical character which can be found in questions like “why is there this universe (or a universe at all)?”. As a c…Read more
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5Selective realism is the thesis that some wisely chosen theoretical posits are essential to science and can therefore be considered as true or approximately true. How to choose them wisely, however, is a matter of fierce contention. Generally speaking, we should favor posits that are effectively deployed in successful prediction. In this paper I propose a refinement of the notion of deployment and I argue that selective realism can be extended to include the analysis of how theoretical posits ar…Read more
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Pensare l'incerto: la concezione suppesiana della probabilita fra invarianza e pluralismoEpistemologia 29 (2): 291-322. 2006.
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Il rapporto fra filosofia e storia della scienza e il caso di Max PlanckEpistemologia 24 (2): 301-338. 2001.
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