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Michael Stöltzner Interdisciplinary Center for Science and Technology University of Wuppertal, Germany January 28, 2008 Monday, 3:30pm-5:00pm HU Classroom 202 The Principle of Least Action (PLA) and other variational principles represent an argumentative structure of mathematical physics that designates the actual dynamical evolution by a specific property within a set of possible dynamics. If well defined, the PLA is more general than the differential equations, which have always been the paradigm of causal explanation. In my talk, I intend to show that the PLA involves interesting philosophical problems that concern formal teleology, the problem of possible worlds, the mathematical architecture of physical theory, and the existence of historically relativized constitutive a priori principles in physics. By applying Michael Friedman's conception of a dynamics of reason to the PLA, I argue that stratification and axiomatization are able to cure some interpretative problems that have plagued the PLA throughout its long history. Along this line, however, one does not arrive at a unique mathematical architecture of a given physical theory that could be interpreted in structural realist terms, and certain problems of modality persist.  |
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Last updated 4/8/08 10:33 PM
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