For those of you, like me, who either didn't take (or didn't pay attention)
to anything like Philosophy of Science during College and have a 'spare' 18
hours (like in commuting back and forth to campus), I'd like to recommend
the following:
I've found it very interesting in terms of the various contentious
discussions we've had here (usually punctuated by some 'pontifical'
offerings). Things like cause/effect, asking why?, metaphysics, and the
very nature of physics and science are long standing and equally contentious
debates in Philosophy (with no consensus winners). It would seem that
consciously or not, we all seem to have chosen a philosophical school of
thought on science and defend those thoughts vigorously. It might be
instructive to better flesh out just what those views actually are.
Anyway, worth a listen (yes it is PURE LECTURE) and Kasser is very good at
avoiding most 'philosophy speak' and apologizes when he can't avoid doing
so. Plenty of examples from physics so at least for physicists, he is easy
to follow. This is 20th Century thought on the topic--so the Geeks not the
Greeks.
FWIW
Rick Tarara
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana
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Free Physics Instructional Software
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
Updates and new multi-resolutions versions now available.
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