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Re: Formal explanations vs. pathways of understanding (was: momentum before force



Just a quick note from a lurker...it is best to recall that Koestler is a
journalist and not a historian.
Cheers

On Thu, 18 Jul 1996, Leigh
Palmer wrote:

Dewey's idea of considering the historical path taken towards physical
enlightenment as a pedagogical strategy is an interesting one. There
are cases where it would not be advisable to do so, however. Conspicuous
among those cases is Kepler's approach to his laws of planetary motion*.
Kepler is said to have documented all his blind alleys, so that the path
could be followed if one wanted to. He even considered and discarded the
ellipse before returning to it and accepting it for his first law. While
it might be very interesting to follow his path, it would be inefficient
to do so, I'm afraid.

It must also be considered that perhaps Newton et al. were more able
than the run of the mill among our students. Their minds were, perhaps,
better prepared to follow those paths than our students' minds will be.

Still, each of us can easily recall sitting through a well delivered,
sparklingly lucid lecture in which a phenomenon was elegantly presented
and explained in terms which would make the listener wonder why it all
was not evident to Adam/Eve, only to leave and be utterly incapable of
reproducing the argument. Even a perfectly sound, rigorous presentation
can be too slick useful for teaching purposes.

I, too, see great value in presenting more of the historical development
of physics in our courses. It is difficult to do so when we try to pack
too much in, but it is worth doing in my view because it is interesting,
and we often lose the interest of students with unleavened physics. The
additional value, which I will not minimize, is that if it is taught with
the proper degree of respect for our intellectual ancestors, students may
develop that respect themselves, something I think very desirable.

Leigh

*I have not read Kepler, and some of my ideas of his work were formed by
reading a notably historically unfaithful account by Arthur Koestler in
"The Sleepwalkers". The business of Kepler having left copious notes is,
I believe, correct. I have checked it with a historian.