Where do the laws of
nature come from?
[Link] [Link]
Outline
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Properties of physical laws
.. using the example of classical mechanics
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How laws are turned into a world view
.. which breaks down with the progress of science
●
More recent laws of physics
.. and their limitations
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A few conclusions about physical laws
.. and how this fits together with belief in a personal God
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 2
Newton's laws (1686)
1. Law of inertia: motion at constant speed
in the absence of forces
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 3
Newton's laws (1686)
1. Law of inertia: motion at constant speed
in the absence of forces
2. F = ma (force = mass times acceleration)
3. Actio = Reactio
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 4
Newton's laws (1686)
1. Law of inertia: motion at constant speed
in the absence of forces
2. F = ma
3. Actio = Reactio
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 5
Newton's laws (1686)
Universal law of gravitation
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 6
Newton's laws: their incredible
success
●
Unification of Kepler's laws of planetary motion and of
Galilei's laws about falling bodies
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 7
Newton's laws: their incredible
success
●
Unification of Kepler's laws of planetary motion and of
Galilei's laws about falling bodies
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 8
Newton's laws: their incredible
success
●
Unification of Kepler's laws of planetary motion and of
Galilei's laws about falling bodies
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 9
Newton's laws: their incredible
success
●
Innumerable applications then and now
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 10
Characteristics of a good
scientific theory
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Accurateness
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Consistency with other theories
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Broad scope
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Simplicity
●
Fruitfulness
According to Thomas Kuhn)
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 11
Properties of Newton's laws
Absolute space
Absolute time
Determinism
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 12
The wordview that was based
on Newton's laws
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It was believed that the laws were directly obtained from nature
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The properties of the laws were taken to be properties of nature
●
The laws were generalized to apply to all of nature
Mechanistic,
deterministic
world view
[Link]/
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 13
Including God in the world view
When going from a view of the world to a view of everything there is:
●
Deism: God as clockmaker
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 14
Including God in the world view
When going from a view of the world to a view of everything there is:
●
Deism: God as clockmaker
●
Atheism/materialism: If there is no beginning in time
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 15
Including God in the world view
When going from a view of the world to a view of everything there is:
●
Deism: God as clockmaker
●
Atheism/materialism: If there is no beginning in time
●
Interventionalism: God „interferes with“ the course of nature
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 16
Including God in the world view
When going from a view of the world to a view of everything there is:
●
Deism: God as clockmaker
●
Atheism/materialism: If there is no beginning in time
●
Interventionalism: God „interferes with“ the course of nature
●
Non-interventionalist theism: God plans everything beforehand
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 17
Doubts about the absolute
validity of Newton's laws
Pierre Duhem (Physicist and
philosopher), 1906:
Kepler's and Newton's laws cannot
both be fully accurate
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 18
The end of the mechanistic
world view in the 20th century
●
Absolute space → theory of relativity
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 19
The end of the mechanistic
world view in the 20th century
●
Absolute space → theory of relativity
●
Absolute time → theory of relativity
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 20
The end of the mechanistic
world view in the 20th century
●
Absolute space → theory of relativity
●
Absolute time → theory of relativity
●
Determinism → chaos theory, quantum mechanics
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 21
On the 300th anniversary of
Newton's Principia
„We are all deeply conscious today
that the enthusiasm of our forebears for the
marvellous achievements of Newtonian
mechanics led them to make
generalizations in this area of predictability
which (...) we now recognize were false. We
collectively wish to apologize for having
misled the general educated public by
spreading ideas (...) that, after 1960, were to
be proved incorrect...” .
Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A 407, 35-50 (1986)
Sir James Lighthill
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 22
Lessons learnt from the history
of Newton's laws
●
Physical laws are extremely successful
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 23
Lessons learnt from the history
of Newton's laws
●
Physical laws are extremely successful
●
Physical laws are idealizations that are not exact
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 24
Lessons learnt from the history
of Newton's laws
●
Physical laws are extremely successful
●
Physical laws are idealizations that are not exact
●
Limited range of applicability
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 25
Lessons learnt from the history
of Newton's laws
●
Physical laws are extremely successful
●
Physical laws are idealizations that are not exact
●
Limited range of applicability
●
Worldviews built on a physics law might be wrong
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 26
Our 'fundamental' laws
Maxwell's
Newton's laws
equations
Schrödinger
equation
General
relativity Quantum field
theory
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 27
Our 'fundamental' laws
Maxwell's equations
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 28
Our 'fundamental' laws
Maxwell's equations
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[Link]
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July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 29
Our 'fundamental' laws
Schrödinger equation
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 30
Our 'fundamental' laws
Schrödinger equation
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e
e m
u r
a s
e
m
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 31
Our 'fundamental' laws
General relativity
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 32
Our 'fundamental' laws
General relativity
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[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 33
Our 'fundamental' laws
Quantum field theory
[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 34
Quantum field theory turned
into a world view
Reductionist
world view:
Particles and their
interactions determine
everything that
happens in nature
Steven Weinberg
(*1933, Nobel prize 1979)
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 35
Our 'fundamental' laws
Quantum field theory
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[Link]
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 36
Our 'fundamental' laws
It
Quantum field theory
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[Link]
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July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 37
The nature of physical laws –
and God's action
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 38
The nature of physical laws –
and God's action
●
Physical laws cannot be deduced by logic
→ contingent
→ need to do observations / experiment
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 39
The nature of physical laws –
and God's action
●
Physical laws cannot be deduced by logic
→ contingent
→ need to do observations / experiment
●
Physical laws are more than mere regularities
→ have explanatory power
→ shape our expectations
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 40
The nature of physical laws –
and God's action
●
Physical laws cannot be deduced by logic
→ contingent
→ need to do observations / experiment
●
Physical laws are more than mere regularities
→ have explanatory power
→ shape our expectations
●
Physical laws do not determine everything
→ causal openness of the world (Popper, Polkinghorne)
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 41
The nature of physical laws –
and God's action
●
Physical laws cannot be deduced by logic
→ contingent
→ need to do observations / experiment
●
Physical laws are more than mere regularities
→ have explanatory power
→ shape our expectations
●
Physical laws do not determine everything
→ causal openness of the world (Popper, Polkinghorne)
●
Physical laws provide no guarantee for the future
→ Problem of induction
July 1st, 2019 | Fachbereich Physik | Theorie komplexer Systeme | Barbara Drossel | 42
