Re: Physics is a human construct

[Gary Karshner <karshner@STMARYTX.EDU>]

> I think this began with Boyle, et al, in the 1600's.  Prior to this, such a
> mode of understanding was not even a part of human thinking.  Since then it has
> become the essential feature of every human invention which goes by the
> name of quantitative science (and quantitative recreation, etc.).

Bob,
        Although I agree with your approach, I would push quantitative
thinking as a test of "validity" back to at least Hipparchus. In the Middle
Ages and before, the Ptolemaic system with it demand of mathematical
precision and the Aristotelian system with its thoroughness and simplicity
coexisted. It is Keplier's demand that the paths of the planets fit the
theory that establishes the quantitative approach as the one to be accepted.
If there is one thing that sets physics apart from the other sciences, it is
the ease with which Nature seems to fit the numbers (i.e. the quantities or
things that we measure). If only there was such a singular measure of learning.
        A Mathematician friend of mine would argue that mathematics is not a
human construct since say a prime number is a prime number no matter which
system of mathematics it is found in. I have always like his proposal to
communicate with other civilizations (al. a. SETI) by sending a sequence of
primes like, two, three, five, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, and nineteen,
over and over again,  with the obvious answer "seven stupid." 
        One of the constant tensions in physics has been between the
Newtonian approach that if the laws describe nature that is all that is
necessary, and the Cartesian approach that looked for mechanisms to explain
physical laws. I think constructionist approach is the latter approach to
physics and may as well be fundamental as to how we learn things. I taught
optics last term and was struck by how many different approaches are used to
describe light - from rays, through Huygen's wave, E-M waves to quantum
electrodynamics. We still uses them all to describe light under different
conditions.
       
Gary   
Gary Karshner

St. Mary's University
San Antonio, Texas
KARSHNER@STMARYTX.EDU