The Reduction of Physical Theories: A Contribution to the Unity of Physics Part 1: Foundations and Elementary Theory (Fundamental Theories of Physics, 207)

Using simple physical examples, this work by Erhard Scheibe presents an important and powerful approach to the reduction of physical theories. Novel to the approach is that it is not based, as usual, on a single reduction concept that is fixed once and for all, but on a series of recursively constructed reductions, with which all reductions appear as combinations of very specific elementary reductions. This leaves the general notion of theory reduction initially open and is beneficial for the treatment of the difficult cases of reduction from the fields of special and general relativity, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics,and quantum mechanics, which are treated in the second volume. The book is systematically organized and intended for readers interested in philosophy of science as well as physicists without deep philosophical knowledge. Translators’ Preface Preface Introduction References Contents 1 The Problem 1.1 The Physicists' Conception of Progress 1.2 The Legacy of the Philosophers 1.3 The Program References 2 Physical Theories 2.1 Analysis of an Example 2.2 Logical and Set-Theoretical Background 2.3 Physical Theories 2.4 Concepts of a Theory References 3 Corroboration and Empirical Progress 3.1 Hypothetico-Deductive Corroboration 3.2 Consideration of Measurement Inaccuracies 3.3 Empirical Progress References 4 Exact Reductions 4.1 Direct Generalisations 4.2 Equivalences 4.3 Indirect Generalisations (Embeddings) 4.4 Refinements 4.5 Extensions and Improper Generalisations 4.6 Unifications (Multiple Reductions) References 5 Approximate Reductions 5.1 Asymptotic Reductions 5.2 Limiting Case Reductions 5.3 Local Reductions References 6 Partial Reductions 6.1 The Closed Reduction Square 6.2 The Open Reduction Square References Appendix A Table of Contents Volume II Appendix B The Legacy of Erhard Scheibe Appendix C Erhard Scheibe's Works Appendix Author Index Author Index Appendix Subject Index Index