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Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics guides you through the concepts, theories, and speculations that underlie our understanding of reality. In 12 stimulating episodes, award-winning teacher and philosopher Steven Gimbel covers the fundamental ideas of modern physics, highlighting the role of philosophy in setting ground rules, interpreting the results, and posing new questions.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Enter the quantum world, where traditional philosophical logic breaks down. First, explore the roots of quantum theory and how scientists gradually uncovered its surpassing strangeness. Clear up the meaning of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is a metaphysical claim, not an epistemological one. Finally, delve into John von Neumann’s revolutionary quantum logic.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Continue exploring time by winding back the clock. Was there a beginning to time? Einstein’s initial equations of general relativity predicted a dynamic universe, one that might have expanded from an initial moment. Einstein discarded this idea, but since then evidence has mounted for a “Big Bang.” Is it sensible to ask what caused the Big Bang and what happened before?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
After the dust settled from the quantum revolution, physics was left with two fundamental theories: the standard model of particle physics for quantum phenomena and general relativity for gravitational interactions. Follow the quest for a grand unified theory that incorporates both. Armed with Karl Popper’s demarcation criteria, see how unifying ideas such as string theory fall short.
5) The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics: Episode 9,Waves, Particles, and Quantum Entanglement
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Quantum mechanics rests on an apparent category mistake: Light can’t be both a wave and a particle, yet that’s what theory and experiments show. Analyze this puzzle from the realist and empiricist points of view. Then explore philosopher Arthur Fine’s “natural ontological attitude,” which reconciles realism and antirealism by demonstrating how they rely on different conceptions of truth.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
If the point of physics is to explain reality, what counts as an explanation? Professor Gimbel goes deeper to probe what makes some explanations scientific and whether physics actually explains anything. Along the way, he explores Bertrand Russell’s rejection of the notion of cause, Carl Hempel’s account of explanation, and Nancy Cartwright’s skepticism about scientific truth.
7) The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics: Episode 1,Does Physics Make Philosophy Superfluous?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Trace the growth of physics from philosophy, as questions about the nature of reality got rigorous answers starting in the Scientific Revolution. Then, see how the philosophy of physics was energized by a movement called logical positivism in the early 20th century in response to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Though logical positivism failed, it spurred new philosophical ideas and approaches.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Compare proof for the reality of atoms with evidence for the existence of Santa Claus. Both are problematic hypotheses! Trace the history of atomic theory and the philosophical resistance to it. End with Bas van Fraassen’s idea of “constructive empiricism,” which holds that successful theories ought only to be empirically adequate since we can never know with certainty what is real.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
What’s left when you take all the matter and energy out of space? Either something or nothing. Newton believed the former; his rival, Leibniz, believed the latter. Assess arguments for both views, and then see how Einstein was influenced by Leibniz’s relational picture of space to invent his special theory of relativity.
10) The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics: Episode 10,Wanted Dead and Alive: Schrödinger’s Cat
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
The most famous paradox of quantum theory is the thought experiment showing that a cat under certain experimental conditions must be both dead and alive. Explore four proposed solutions to this conundrum, known as the measurement problem: the hidden-variable view, the Copenhagen interpretation, the idea that the human mind “collapses” a quantum state, and the many-worlds interpretation.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
The laws of physics have been invoked on both sides of the debate over the existence of God. Professor Gimbel closes the series by tracing the history of this dispute, from Newton’s belief in a Creator to today’s discussion of the “fine-tuning” of nature’s constants and whether God is responsible. Such big questions in physics inevitably bring us back to the roots of physics: philosophy.
12) The Great Questions of Philosophy and Physics: Episode 2,Why Mathematics Works So Well with Physics
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Physics is a mathematical science. But why should manipulating numbers give insight into how the world works? This question was famously posed by physicist Eugene Wigner in his 1960 paper, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences.” Explore proposed answers, including Max Tegmark’s assertion that the world is, in fact, a mathematical system.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Consider the weirdness of time: The laws of physics are time reversable, but we never see time running backwards. Theorists have proposed that the direction of time is connected to the order of the early universe and even that time is an illusion. See how Einstein deepened the mystery with his theory of relativity, which predicts time dilation and the surprising possibility of time travel.
15) Speed
Publisher
MacGillivray Freeman Films
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
A look at the role of SPEED in man’s life from the dawn of time to the farthest reaches of the conceivable future, Speed introduces us to daredevils—racers, test pilots, astronauts—the people who live and breathe speed on the frontier of human capabilities. But at the heart of this film is a thoughtful, soft-spoken man, known not for the speed at which he traveled, but for his imagination. Albert Einstein enlarged the frontiers of human potential...
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
Dr. Lincoln opens the series with the observation that all matter is made of atoms. But how do we know? The atomic hypothesis goes back to antiquity, although that was just an inspired guess. Survey the contributions of later scientists such as John Dalton and Albert Einstein. Discover why atoms are invisible to light microscopes, but not to the scanning transmission electron microscope.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
Planets beyond our solar system weren't discovered until the 1990s. Since then, thousands have been confirmed around nearby stars, and billions likely populate the Milky Way Galaxy. Planets are so dim compared to the stars they orbit that observers had to come up with clever techniques to infer their presence. Focus on the "wobble" and "shadow" methods, which have been remarkably productive.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
The Big Bang is one of the few scientific concepts that has entered popular culture. But where did the idea come from? Trace this gripping detective story to attempts by a young female astronomer in the early 1900s to measure distances to stars. Her success set the stage for others to discover that the universe is expanding, as if from an initial "big bang." More clues filled in the picture.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
Probe one of the most baffling mysteries of physics: the wave-particle duality of light. Trace the debate over the nature of light to its apparent solution in 1801, when Thomas Young demonstrated that light is a wave. A century later, Einstein proved that light also behaves as a particle. Astonishingly, further work showed that electrons and other matter also have this Janus-faced identity.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2021.
Language
English
Description
Dr. Lincoln boldly confronts the paradox of quantum entanglement, which governs the behavior of particles that share the same quantum state. Discover that the rules of quantum mechanics defy every attempt to explain what seems inexplicable -- implying, for example, that a cat could be simultaneously dead and alive in Erwin Schrödinger's famous thought experiment. Explore other spooky examples.
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