It would change even more dramatically in early twentieth-century physics as well.
In many ways, this situation changed dramatically with the arrival of Darwinism. By the nineteenth century, it had appeared that only a few details had to be “cleared up” before all science was basically known. Its static laws appeared to be the unchanging principles of all motion and life on earth. From the time of the early renaissance to the nineteenth century, physics represented the ultimate expression of scientific investigation for almost all thinkers. This overall pattern of scientific reasoning has left deep marks on the minds of almost all thinkers and found its apotheosis in modern physics. Similarly, the scientific investigations of the ancient Near East and Greece into the regular laws of the stars ultimately looked for constant patterns. Even the basic laws of the Nile’s flooding were investigated in the hopes of finding never-altering laws. "Darwinism's Effect on Science" by Matthew Minerd (2014)įor much of the history of human thought, the sciences have studied subjects that seemed to be eternal and unchanging. That is, color does not enter into their definitions at all-a red rectangle is just as much a rectangle as is a green one.
Rectangles and icosahedrons can be any color. To speak of a “rectangular surface” or an “icosahedron-like body” does not tell us anything about colors. No matter how many equations and shapes are used to describe color, none of these will have anything to do with the experience of color itself. This last reason is perhaps the most interesting reason of all. Finally, all of the physical descriptions of light waves tell us about everything except for what it is like to experience color. Likewise, motion becomes merely something to be expressed in an equation that has time as a variable. Few physical triangles are exact triangles in the manner of the shapes used in geometric problems. Most obviously, there are few (if any) objects in reality that perfectly match the form and shape of a pure geometric figure. Still, it is interesting to notice some examples of how much is overlooked in these kinds of mathematical models. However, after performing a number of experiments, he or she soon sees that these mathematical formulas seem to “work.” That is, these equations really do predict the outcomes of experiments in the real world, not merely in mathematical equations on paper. All of this at first seems strange to the budding young physics student. The world is recast into a form that looks more like a geometry problem than the world as experienced in day-to-day life. Many of the concepts used in physics are related to the figures, facts, and equations that are learned in mathematics. However, they are rarely instructed in the explicit difference between the world expressed by their equations and the world that they experience. Many high school students likely suspect this fact, given the difficulty that they often experience when taking physics courses. The world described by physics is a surprisingly strange world, somewhat distant from our regular experience.
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