Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Structures
by Margaret MorrisonEdition: Revised
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2007-07-12
Publisher(s): Cambridge University Press
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Summary
This book is about the methods used for unifying different scientific theories under one all-embracing theory. The process has characterized much of the history of science and is prominent in contemporary physics; the search for a "theory of everything" involves the same attempt at unification. Margaret Morrison argues that, contrary to popular philosophical views, unification and explanation often have little to do with each other. The mechanisms that facilitate unification are not those that enable us to explain how or why phenomena behave as they do. The book emphasizes the importance of mathematical structures in unification, and claims that despite this common feature theory unification is a multi-faceted process for which no general account can be offered.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgements | |
| Introduction | |
| The many faces of unity | |
| Unification, realism and inference | |
| Maxwell-s unification of electromagnetism and optics | |
| Gauges, symmetries and forces: the electroweak unification | |
| Special relativity and the unity of physics | |
| Darwin and natural selection: unification versus explanation | |
| Structural unity and the biological synthesis | |
| Conclusions | |
| Notes | |
| References | |
| Index | |
| Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved. |
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