Physics and necessity: rationalist pursuits from the cartesian past to the quantum present/

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Darrigol, Olivier
Format: Printed Book
Published: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Subjects:
Physics-Philosophy-History.
Practical reason-History.
Physics-Methodology.
Online Access:https://books.google.co.in/books?id=eS-TAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Physics+and+necessity&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0wIuFi8rNAhVCQ48KHW_BD2wQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Physics%20and%20necessity&f=false
Table of Contents:
  • 1. Rationalism in the history of mechanics. Descartes versus Newton
  • Before Newton
  • After Newton
  • Conclusions
  • 2. The necessity of classical mechanics. Connected systems
  • Molecular mechanics
  • Continuum mechanics
  • Collisions
  • Conclusions
  • 3. From mechanical reduction to general principles. Varieties of mechanical reduction
  • The energy principle
  • The principle of least action
  • Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics
  • Conclusions
  • 4. Geometry. From Euclid to Helmholtz
  • Improved foundations
  • Conventions and necessities
  • Conclusions
  • 5. Spacetime. From time to spacetime
  • Rational spacetime
  • The Helmholtzian approach, with morals
  • Conclusions
  • 6. Numbers and math. From Descartes to the nineteenth century
  • A historical sketch of quantity
  • Helmholtz's Counting and measuring
  • Poincaré on number and quantity
  • Conclusions
  • 7. Classical field theories. Landau, Faraday, and Maxwell
  • Toward a definition of Faradayan theories
  • The vector, tensor, and scalar cases
  • Energy-momentum considerations
  • The super-Faradayan approach
  • Conclusions
  • 8. Quantum mechanics. Historical necessity
  • The deformation of classical mechanics
  • Quantum logic
  • Discreteness, probabilities, and information
  • Conclusions
  • 9. Necessity, theories, and modules. The preconditions of necessity
  • Theories and modules
  • The necessity of modularity
  • Conclusion : the possibility of necessity.

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