Philosophy of physics

Nikolay noskov Translated from Russian by Jury sarychev English text edited by Robert fritzius

Philosophical basis of physics

Physics as a science appeared only due to the fact that its creators, Galileo, Newton, Hooke, Huygens, Euler, Laplace, Faraday, Maxwell and many other researchers adhered to some original philosophical principles and rules for doing science. Those principles and rules, in turn, rested on stringent logical laws and on a faith in cognition and mechanics (wherein any natural phenomena can be explained by motions of matter).

Now, having been afflicted by all the illnesses of philosophical thought during the last three centuries, we see that this earlier path of development has shown itself to be uniquely true.

What are the philosophical principles, on which physics is created? At first, it is the independence of existence of nature from our consciousness; matter is self-sufficient and its laws of motion depend neither on God, nor on the observer. Secondly, researches into nature should be based:

• on direct contemplation and observations;

• on precise, irrefutable facts;

• on experiments;

• on a faith in the cognizance of nature;

• on a faith that nothing is present in space except moving matter. All laws of nature, all natural phenomena, all facts, connected with the motion of matter, are causal, and these reasons ought to be possible to find.

Based on such a (materialistic) philosophy, every one of the famous researchers (except for the relativists, who deviated from these principles) created or supplemented the rules for doing science. Three of the foremost of these (not counting the Ancient Greek and the middle ages scientists) were Kant, Huygens and Newton.

So, from Newton [1] we read:

We should not take other reasons in nature over these, which ones are true and are sufficient for the explanation of phenomena.

Identical phenomena will precede from identical reasons.

I do not invent hypotheses.

And so on.

The most relevant expressions in this occasion are adduced in works [2], [3].

Newton grounded his postulates about the invariance of space, time, and mass by direct contemplation of nature instead of by the invention of hypotheses.

"Any physical theory circumscribing these phenomena is connected to a definition of space and time, as all natural phenomena happen in time and in space. And depending on which definition is at its base, science can progress on a correct materialistic path, objectively reflecting reality, or it will descend to idealism and will lose the sense of science and will turn into a means of stupefying mankind" [4]. The problem of time, space and mass is basically epistemological and therefore so is the philosophical basis of physics.

Space

Space is the arena in which matter moves. The metrics of space should be Euclidean in order not to distort the laws for the motion of matter. Space should not have any physical properties, except an infinite volume, which can not in any way influence the laws of motion of matter. In other words, "space is irrelative of anything external" (Newton).

Thus, space can not be endowed with any properties, with the exception of its three-dimensional extention. It can not be called absolute or relative, identical or fixed etc. It cannot be considered as finite, at least, not until any fact of observation or indisputable proof contradicting this premise comes to be found. Such facts, observations and proofs are not present. Space is an objective reality revealed to us by sensation.

Time

Time is the second basic essence. It, as well as space, reveals itself through the motion of matter. Time in and of itself, without relation to anything external, flows uniformly and differentially and is named as duration. It can not influence the state or the laws of motion of matter at all. It only passionlessly and uniformly measures the duration of processes and phenomena. On the other hand, there can not be a process, phenomenon or status of matter influencing the uniform course of time. Any other properties, with the exception of duration and uniformity can not be referred to it. Time is an objective reality revealed to us by sensation.

Matter

Matter is a substance or a body having a spatial expansion (volume), impermeability, viscosity, elasticity, hardness, form and spectral responsiveness.

Quantity of matter – mass is determined by its resistance to acceleration. In the common case:

m = F / a.

And above the surface of the Earth – by weight and the acceleration of gravity:

m = P / g.

Newton's definition that "mass is a measure of the quantity of matter (quantity of mass is proportional to its density and its volume)" is incomplete, as it does not define more precisely this proportionality to acceleration.

Matter is the objective reality given to us by sensation.

As a result of the accumulation and extension of knowledge about matter, from astronomical and microscopic observations, with the help of the methods of analogy, induction and deduction, and also of logical analysis, it is possible to assert that matter is divisible without limit – in the microcosmos and is accumulated – in the macrocosmos. Now, neither the finiteness, nor infinity of gradation of matter outside and into infintesimal depths can be proved.

The divisibility of matter into infintesimal depths is demonstrated by all developments of physics. Huygens showed that the existence of a light-transferring ether should exist [5]. Atoms and fundamental particles were unknown at that time. Now, when it became known, that fundamental particles have a finite life time and, conversely, that they can arise from "vacuum," it became obvious, that they (the fundamental particles) are formed from a more diffuse substance. And this more diffuse substance is composed of particles, which under certain conditions and energies interact among themselves to form composite spatial bodies – i.e., the fundamental particles. The interactions of these particles which are discerned from their general observable properties, permit us to name their composition as the "light-transferring ether" or an "electromagnetic liquid."

In turn, the existence of the interactions between ether particles indicates that there is more diffuse matter (we shall call it ether #2), which should to be the carrier of this interaction. And the particles of ether #1 should have a composite constitution or structure.

We can watch the accumulation of this matter, outside in the macrocosmos, only out to the structure of the universe that is near to us. We can consider solar and other planetary systems, constellations, galaxies and compact clusters of galaxies as separate bodies. The cellular structure of the universe displays that all visible galaxies are joined in a certain crystalline framework, which can appear as a superbody (superboulder, superplanet, etc.), of which one consists as the superuniverse. And so on.

Field

A field is power or other (barometric, velocity related, temperature, etc.) spatial characteristic expressed either by a physical law or by a set of numerical data.

There can not be a field without the presence of matter. The field expresses the state (i.e., the motion) of matter in space. "There is nothing but moving matter in the world. And matter can not move other than in space and in time" [6].

Energy is a characteristic property of matter. Matter can not be transformed into energy. The observable release of energy from nuclear decay or from the annihilation of fundamental particles is no more than the release of the energy of the component parts of the nuclei and other particles, having inside these formations more energy, than the energy of motion of the same particles in a free state in the environment.

There are no fundamental particles with so-called "null rest-mass". All of them are photons – sections of oscillations of ether of batched (quantized) energy, associated with the structure of an atom, a nucleus or a fundamental particle [7].