- Scientific formalism
Scientific formalism is a broad term for a family of approaches to the presentation of
science . It is viewed as an important part of thescientific method , especially in thephysical sciences .Levels of formalism
There are multiple levels of scientific formalism possible. At the lowest level, scientific formalism deals with the symbolic manner in which the information is presented. To achieve formalism in a
scientific theory at this level, one starts with a well defined set ofaxioms , and from these follows aformal system .However, at a higher level, scientific formalism also involves consideration of the axioms themselves. These can be viewed as questions of
ontology . For example, one can, at the lower level of formalism, define a property called 'existence'. However, at the higher level, the question of whether anelectron exists in the same sense that abacterium exists still needs to be resolved.In modern physics
The scientific climate of the
twentieth century revived these questions. From about the time ofIsaac Newton to that ofJames Clerk Maxwell they had been dormant, in the sense that the physical sciences could rely on the status of thereal number s as a description of thecontinuum , and an agnostic view ofatom s and their structure.Quantum mechanics , the dominant physical theory after about 1925, was formulated in a way which raised questions of both types.In the
Newtonian framework there was indeed a degree of comfort in the answers one could give. Consider for example the question of whether theEarth really goes round theSun . In aframe of reference adapted to calculating the Earth's orbit, this is a mathematical but also tautological statement.Newtonian mechanics can answer the question, whether it is not equally the case that the Sun goes round the Earth, as it indeed appears to Earth-based astronomers. In Newton's theory there is a basic, fixed frame of reference that isinertial . The 'correct answer' is that the point of view of an observer in an inertial frame of reference is privileged: other observers see artefacts of their acceleration relative to an inertial frame. Before Newton,Galileo would draw the consequences, from theCopernican heliocentric model. He was, however, constrained to call his work (in effect) scientific formalism, under the old 'description' saving the phenomena. To avoid going against authority, the elliptic orbits of the heliocentric model could be labelled as a more convenient device for calculations, rather than an actual description of reality.In
general relativity , Newton's inertial frames are no longer privileged. In quantum mechanics,Paul Dirac argued that physical models were not there to provide semantic constructs allowing us to "understand" microscopic physics in language comparable to that we use on the familiar scale of everyday objects. His attitude, adopted by manytheoretical physicist s, is that a good model is judged by our capacity to use it to calculate physical quantities that can be tested experimentally.Duhem
A writer who took the issues involved seriously was
Pierre Duhem , writing at the beginning of the twentieth century. He wrote an extended analysis of the approach he saw as characteristically British, in requiringfield theories of theoretical physics to have a mechanical-physical interpretation. That was an accurate characterisation of what Dirac (himself British) would later argue against. The national characteristics specified by Duhem do not need to be taken too seriously, since he also claimed that the use ofabstract algebra , namelyquaternion s, was also characteristically British (as opposed to French or German); as if the use ofclassical analysis methods alone was important one way or the other. He also wrote on saving the phenomena.See also
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Scientific Community Metaphor
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