Philosophy

In the interview Shimony discusses his undergraduate years at Yale in mathematics and philosophy; influence of C. S. Peirce, A. N. Whitehead; reactions to Hume; studying under Robert Calhoun and Paul Weiss; the bases of Shimony's physical realism; Army service at Ft. Monmouth, 1953-55; physics Ph.D. at Princeton; reading EPR; interaction with Eugene Wigner; teaching and doing research on the philosophy of quantum mechanics at MIT in the 1960s; first reactions to Bell's 1965 paper; collaboration with J. F. Clauser, M. A. Horne, and R. Holt on tests of Bell's inequality; the 1970 Varenna summer school on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics; the researches on hidden variable theory and on quantum mechanics of von Neumann, G. Mackey, J. P. Vigier, C. Piron, J. M. Jauch, E. Specker, and S. Kochen; the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics: potentiality and nonlocality; the search for non-linear modifications of quantum mechanics; neutron interferometry; interactions with C. Shull, A. Zeilinger, and D. Greenberger; devising measures of entanglement; plans for future research.

After surveying Martin Harwit's family background and early education, the interview concentrates on: his graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his career in physics at Cambridge Unviersity as a NATO Fellow; his time at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as a National Science Foundation Fellow; and, principally, his work at Cornell as assistant and associate professor of astronomoy, professor, and chairman of the Physics department.  While discussing his childhood and education, Harwit addresses the antisemitism he and his family faced in German and in the United States.  This interview covers a broad range of his scientific interest: galaxy and star formations; comets; infrared optics, especially relating to detector technology; infrared astronomy; rocketry; history of philosophy in science; use of balloons in observation; and astronomy education.  Some affliliations discussed include:  John Decker, Herbert Friedman, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle.

After surveying Martin Harwit's family background and early education, the interview concentrates on: his graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his career in physics at Cambridge Unviersity as a NATO Fellow; his time at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as a National Science Foundation Fellow; and, principally, his work at Cornell as assistant and associate professor of astronomoy, professor, and chairman of the Physics department.  While discussing his childhood and education, Harwit addresses the antisemitism he and his family faced in German and in the United States.  This interview covers a broad range of his scientific interest: galaxy and star formations; comets; infrared optics, especially relating to detector technology; infrared astronomy; rocketry; history of philosophy in science; use of balloons in observation; and astronomy education.  Some affliliations discussed include:  John Decker, Herbert Friedman, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle.

After surveying Martin Harwit's family background and early education, the interview concentrates on: his graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his career in physics at Cambridge Unviersity as a NATO Fellow; his time at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as a National Science Foundation Fellow; and, principally, his work at Cornell as assistant and associate professor of astronomoy, professor, and chairman of the Physics department.  While discussing his childhood and education, Harwit addresses the antisemitism he and his family faced in German and in the United States.  This interview covers a broad range of his scientific interest: galaxy and star formations; comets; infrared optics, especially relating to detector technology; infrared astronomy; rocketry; history of philosophy in science; use of balloons in observation; and astronomy education.  Some affliliations discussed include:  John Decker, Herbert Friedman, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle.

This interview covers selected aspects of Friedman's career at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).  It traces the development of upper air research at NRL through the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957-1958), and then outlines subsequent attempts at international coorperation in geophysical research.  The latter discussion serves as the basis to explore the role of "big" science, and its relationship to individual and "little" science.

In this interview Pierre Demarque discusses topics such as: his early interest in astronomy; listening to radio lectures by Fred Hoyle; study at the University of Toronto; interest in cosmology; work with Leonard Searle; master's thesis on stellar structure; influence of Searle and J. Beverly Oke; move to the United States and Louisiana State University; University of Illinois and the influence of Ivan King; Ludwig Biermann; George McVittie; going to the University of Chicago and contact with Chandrasekhar; stellar evolution; Yerkes Observatory; leaving Chicago for Yale University; Walter Baade philosophy of studying cosmology; globular clusters; John Eddy's work on solar variability; stellar populations and galaxy evolution.

Youth and family life in Turkish Armenia prior to turn of century; time at Yale Sheffield Scientific School and early research interests; World War I work for U.S. Signal Corp; teaching experience and associates at Sheffield School; his book on mechanics; experience at Cavendish Laboratory, 1914; impressions of Joseph J. Thomson, reaction to Niels Bohr's atomic theory. Trinity College in Hartford, state of physics department; his preoccupation with wartime plight of Armenians. Comments on philosophy of science, reaction at Yale University to the theory of relativity, hazards of x-rays, concepts of centrifugal force, indeterminacy and complementarity. Also prominently mentioned is Leigh Page.

Basic principles of dialectic; Hegelian philosophy; mistranslation of Hegel’s German; influence on Soviet Union, Marx, Lenin, Engels; implicit and explicit order; Mozart and Beethoven’s composition techniques; creative intelligence – Jim Watson and the DNA double helix; discussion with Niels Bohr about his ideas on cosmology, the whole as a process (1959); algebraic topology and quantum mechanics; integration of quantum mechanics and relativity; parallel between mind and matter; sensation and intuition.

Bohm’s intellectual autobiography; Hegelian philosophy; Saint Nicholas of Cusa – implecatio, explicatio, complicatio – folding and unfolding; Mario Schoenberg on Hegel – causality and chance; Mashulan Groll on Hegel – unity of opposites; nature of thought as a process; translation problems from Hegel’s German; Bertrand Russell and Hegel; Hegelian principles applied to physics; logic – rules of logic, logic of reason, creative logic, higher order logic.

Attended seminar at Bristol on algebraic topology; geometry and quantum mechanics; philosophy of Heraclitus, Aristotle, Democritus, Parmenides, Zeno’s paradox – atoms and motion; molecular biology and quantum mechanics; publication of Causality and Chance in Modern Physics; necessity and contingency; correspondence with Charles Biederman; evolution of art; Impressionism and quantum mechanics; Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity; Biederman and Krishnamurti’s views on societal conditioning.