"Space is blue and birds fly through it"

Quantum mechanics is not about 'quantum states': it is about values of physical variables. I give a short fresh presentation and update on the $relational$ perspective on the theory, and a comment on its philosophical implications.Comment: Presented to meeting "Foundations of quantum mechanics and their impact on contemporary society", at The Royal Society, London, 11-12 December 2017; To appear in Philosophical Transactions

The explanatory and heuristic power of mathematics

Mathematics is, and has been for a very long time, one of the most successful autonomous fields of research. However, the last five centuries have seen it become so deeply interwoven in virtually every area of scientific inquiry to convince Kant that “in any special doctrine of nature there can be only as much proper science as there is mathematics therein” (Kant 1786/2004, 6; emphases in original). While the distinction between pure and applied mathematics remains somewhat elusive, philosophers have been interested in understanding the nature of each. Moreover, the idea that there are actually two uses of mathematics, an explanatory and a heuristic one, has begun to feature more and more prominently in recent philosophical debates

Revoluções Científicas

Artigo opinativo sobre o estado da arte das revoluções científicas. Centrado em A Estrutura das Revoluções Científicas e no material pós-Estrutura, de Thomas Kuhn, este artigo analisa conceitos fundamentais sobre as revoluções científicas. A análise não é exegética, mas sim crítica, e alicerça-se na literatura contemporânea. Discutem-se as linhas principais que se derivam do modelo kuhniano de desenvolvimento científico -incomensurabilidade, construtivismo e progresso científico. O artigo também introduz ao estado da arte das revoluções em matemática, detalhando para o efeito uma revolução matemática – as geometrias não-euclidianas. Na parte final do artigo dá-se uma visão geral de algumas adendas contemporâneas ao sistema kuhniano.Opinionated state of the art paper on scientific revolutions. This paper analyses fundamental concepts around The Structure of the Scientific Revolutions and the post-Structure publications of Thomas Kuhn. This paper is not exegetical, but critical, and it is based on contemporary literature. It discusses the main themes of the Kuhnian philosophical system – incommensurability, constructivism and scientific progress. The paper also introduces the state of the art of mathematical revolutions. It gives a detailed analysis of a mathematical revolution – the non-Euclidean geometries. It sums up some contemporary extensions to the original Kuhnian system.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi novella “Profession” versus professionalism: Reflections on the (missing) scientific revolutions in the 21th century

This is a partly provocative essay edited as a humanitarian study in philosophy of science and social philosophy. The starting point is Isaac Asimov’s famous sci-fi novella “Profession” (1957) to be “back” extrapolated to today’s relation between Thomas Kuhn’s “normal science” and “scientific revolutions” (1962). The latter should be accomplished by Asimov’s main personage George Platen’s ilk (called “feeble minded” in the novella) versus the “burned minded” professionals able only to “normal science”. Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” in post-Hegelian manner is now interpreted to an analogically supposed “end of scientific history” without “scientific revolutions” any more. The relevant dystopia of the prolonged or even “eternal” period of normal science is justified to the contemporary institution of science due to mechanisms such as “peer-review”, “impact-factor rating”, the projects’ competition for funding, etc. Positive feedbacks forcing all scientists needing careers to be more and more orthodox are demonstrated therefore establishing for that dystopia to be the real state of contemporary science. Two counterfactual case studies based correspondingly on Feyerabend’s “Against method” (1975) if Galilei should make his discoveries today and Sokal’s hoax (1996) if he suggested a scientific masterpiece to be really rejected by journals are discussed. Still one case study considering the abundance of Kelvin’s “clouds” on the horizon of today’s physics (dark matter, dark energy, entanglement, quantum gravitation, phenomena refuting the Big Bang, etc.) serves to verify the aforementioned conjecture that science has already entered that dystopia of eternal normal science. The conception of “ontomathematics” implying “creation ex nihilo” being scandalous for the dominating paradigm is sketched as an eventual revolutionary way out. An imaginary and utopic “happy end” reinterpreting the analogical “happy end” of Asimov’s “Profession” finishes the essay “instead of conclusion” relying on the Internet and AI in an increasingly “fluid” and anti-hierarchical society

Dynamical versus structural explanations in scientific revolutions

By briefly reviewing three well-known scientific revolutions in fundamental physics (the discovery of inertia, of special relativity and of general relativity), I claim that problems that were supposed to be crying for a dynamical explanation in the old paradigm ended up receiving a structural explanation in the new one. This claim is meant to give more substance to Kuhn’s view that revolutions are accompanied by a shift in what needs to be explained, while suggesting at the same time the existence of a pattern that is common to all of the discussed case-studies. It remains to be seen whether also quantum mechanics, in particular entanglement, conforms to this pattern

Dynamical versus structural explanations in scientific revolutions

By briefly reviewing three well-known scientific revolutions in fundamental physics (the discovery of inertia, of special relativity and of general relativity), I claim that problems that were supposed to be crying for a dynamical explanation in the old paradigm ended up receiving a structural explanation in the new one. This claim is meant to give more substance to Kuhn’s view that revolutions are accompanied by a shift in what needs to be explained, while suggesting at the same time the existence of a pattern that is common to all of the discussed case-studies. It remains to be seen whether also quantum mechanics, in particular entanglement, conforms to this patter