Naslov
R.J. Boscovich's Achievement in Natural Philosophy in Relation to the Development of Modern Particle Physics

Autori
Petković, Tomislav

Izvornik
Almagest (1792-2593) 6 (2015), 1; 80-103

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
R. J. Boscovich; R. P. Feynman; E. Rutherford; philosophy of nature; Boscovich tree of forces; point-particles; parton-quark physics; epistemology; unification; standard model; new physics; science and God

Sažetak
R. J. Boscovich (1711-1787) was the first in the history of philosophy to combine Newton, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz's method of thought in the middle of the 18th century before the Maxwell-Einstein era of physics, synthesising them into his new method of thought on Nature. His method may be expressed by the epistemological formula more geometrico sive mathematico-more rationali-more empirico-more theologico, which encapsulates the four fundaments of science. Philosophy and religion are unified in Boscovich's thought. Boscovich's A Theory of Natural Philosophy on points-atoms as the ultimate building-blocks of matter is based on a single law of forces existing in nature. The Theory itself has been fundamental for the modern scientific picture of the world and the basic concepts of nature to date, due to the structure of nature and the phenomenology of particles it brings forward. Boscovich is the father of the original pictorial representation of the points-particles (dynamism hypothesis), important both for the modern concept of subatomic particles (from electrons, protons and neutrons to quarks) of the 20th century, and the predicted and expected new particles and objects of the 21st century. Accordingly, N. Bohr, W. Heisenberg and L. Lederman did indeed praise Boscovich's Theory. However, it was Richard P. Feynman who showed keen interest in Boscovich's atomism, having accepted it as his metaphysical credo 200 years after its formulation. Using an effective epistemic approach, the paper links Boscovich's ingenious apperception of points and particles with Feynman's ingenious and precise parton-quark physics of the Standard Model. Boscovich's theory was launched brilliantly on a new path by the discovery of the atomic nucleus and the nuclear model of the atom in 1911 in Manchester. The scientific-philosophical compatibility of the Dubrovnik-born thinker with E. Rutherford was put into the limelight by Rutherford's paper from 1911 by way of three statements: the atomic nucleus as Boscovich's point - a point source of Coulomb force, an α particle is also a point, and the impact parameter in an encounter between an alpha (α) particle and a gold nucleus has the character of distance resembling the one in Boscovich's curve. In a modern epistemic analysis, going beyond an orthodox scientific approach, the paper shows that the most interesting legacy of Boscovich's tree of repulsion and attraction forces lies chiefly in the tree-level picture of nuclear forces in contemporary low-energy physics. The paper shows, beyond a conventional opportunity of the 300th anniversary of Boscovich's birth in 2011 that was declared the year of Boscovich in both Croatia and the world within the philosophy of nature, that Boscovich conceived the original apperception of point-particles (atoms) with a single universal law of forces between them. In light of the modern particle physics picture of nature, Boscovich's legacy - including the most recent interpretations of his epoch-making work A Theory of Natural Philosophy (Vienna 1758 and Venice 1763)- is particularly important due to the current epistemic challenges of "new physics" dealing with new objects and/or particles at high energies, as well as for the global interferences between contemporary science and culture.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Fizika, Elektrotehnika, Filozofija

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