ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Laszlo E. Szabo" <leszabo AT hps.elte.hu>]

Department of HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Eötvös University, Budapest
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Pázmány P. sétány 1/A
Budapest, Hungary
Phone/Fax: (36-1) 372 2924
The web site of the seminar:
http://hps.elte.hu/seminar

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
Room 6.54 (6th floor)  Monday 4:00 PM
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7 October  4:00 PM   6th floor 6.54
(Language of presentation: English)

R e n é   V o l t z  
Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg

Platonism in modern physics

Since Galileo, modern physics can be envisaged as progressing following
a Platonic program: explore the world beyond sensory appearances, with
ideas and theories based on the existence of unchanging physical laws
that are expressible in mathematics. In the search of unified theories
and the "dreams of a final theory", contemporary physics expresses more
than ever the Platonic tendencies: it basically admits the reality of
intelligible forms, representations of generalized symmetries, which
convince via their "beauty"besides the necessary verifications of their
empirical consequences.

The importance of Platonic inspirations during the successive conceptual
mutations which mark the History of physics was recognized by the most
creative actors. Representative examples are discussed in the
presentation.


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The organizer of the seminar: László E. Szabó
<http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo><mailto:leszabo AT hps.elte.hu>)


L a s z l o   E.   S z a b o
Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University, Budapest
H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary
Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924
Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172
http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo