ELFT HÍRADÓ

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

P h i l o s o p h y   o f   S c i e n c e   C o l l o q u i u m
 
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
Room 6.54 (6th floor)  Monday 4:00 PM
Pázmány P. sétány 1/A  Budapest, Hungary                
Phone/Fax: (36-1) 372 2924
 
PROGRAM
 
29 September 4:00 PM 6th floor 6.54
 
K a r l   H a l l
Department of History
Central European University, Budapest
 
Socialist Realist Physics: Lev Landau's Principled Phenomenology
 
"The electron does not tolerate bureaucratism," senior Soviet physicists 
assured their technocratic patrons during Stalin's headlong 
industrialization campaign in the late 1920s.  Research programs 
oriented toward Socialist Construction placed Soviet theoretical 
physicists in particular on the defensive.  The young theorist Lev 
Landau deftly steered between engineering imperatives and the longing 
for a unifying mathematical lever to move the world that he blithely 
dismissed as "Einsteinkrankheit."  His peculiar brand of "Socialist 
Realist" physics, forged in the crucible of Stalinist culture, 
eventually enabled him to solve the strangest physics problem of his 
day: superfluidity in helium.
 
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The 60-minute lecture is followed by a 10-minute break. Then we hold a 
30-60-minute discussion. The participants may comment on the talks and 
are encouraged to initiate discussion through the Internet. The 
comments  should be written in the language of the presentation.
 
The organizer of the seminar: Miklós Rédei (email: 
redei AT hps.elte.hu)

-- 
L a s z l o   E.   S z a b o
NIAS, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
phone:(31)70 512 2700    fax:(31)70 511 7162    http://www.nias.knaw.nl

on leave from

Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University, Budapest
http://hps.elte.hu/leszabo