PMID: 16536154Mar 16, 2006Paper

On the co-creation of classical and modern physics

Isis; an International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Richard Staley

Abstract

While the concept of "classical physics" has long framed our understanding of the environment from which modern physics emerged, it has consistently been read back into a period in which the physicists concerned initially considered their work in quite other terms. This essay explores the shifting currency of the rich cultural image of the classical/ modern divide by tracing empirically different uses of "classical" within the physics community from the 1890s to 1911. A study of fin-de-siècle addresses shows that the earliest general uses of the concept proved controversial. Our present understanding of the term was in large part shaped by its incorporation (in different ways) within the emerging theories of relativity and quantum theory--where the content of "classical" physics was defined by proponents of the new. Studying the diverse ways in which Boltzmann, Larmor, Poincaré, Einstein, Minkowski, and Planck invoked the term "classical" will help clarify the critical relations between physicists' research programs and their use of worldview arguments in fashioning modern physics.

Citations

Feb 21, 2009·Studies in History and Philosophy of Science·Robert Michael Brain
May 23, 2013·Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences·Judith Kaplan
Dec 11, 2019·Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte·Christian Joas, Thiago Hartz

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