Las imágenes y la lógica del cono de luz: rastreando el giro postulacional de Robb en la física geométrica

Autores/as

  • Jordi Cat Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2016iss8pp43-105

Palabras clave:

Robb, axiomática, postulados, postulacionismo, cono de luz, teoría de la relatividad, geometría, fundamentos de las matemáticas, espacio-tiempo, modelo, modelo lógico, Russell, Hilbert, Veblen, Huntington, Peano, Minkowski, Cambridge, Göttingen

Resumen

Las discusiones anteriores de la obra de Robb acerca del espacio y el tiempo han ofrecido un enfoque filosófico de las interpretaciones de la teoría de la relatividad o un enfoque histórico de su empleo de la geometría no-euclidiana, o han ignorado enteramente las discusiones de la relatividad en Cambridge. En este artículo centro mi atención en la forma cómo la obra de Robb tomó contacto con esos mismos desarrollos fundacionales en la matemática y con sus aplicaciones. El contacto con las aplicaciones de la nueva lógica matemática en Göttingen y en Cambridge explica la transición de las investigaciones de Robb sobre los electrones a su tratamiento de la relatividad en 1911 y finalmente a su presentación axiomática de 1914. En el corazón de la óptica física de Robb estaba el modelo del cono de luz. Este modelo pasó de ser un modelo mecánico operante en el sentido cantabrigense maxwelliano de herramienta didáctica y heurística a ser un modelo semántico en el sentido lógico de la teoría de modelos. Robb marcó esta transición de la concepción del siglo XIX a la del siglo XX con el uso más temprano del término “modelo” en el nuevo sentido. Sitúo sus modelos de conos en una genealogía de modelos similares y uso su evolución para seguir la pista de cómo las investigaciones físicas de Robb dependían de su interés en la geometría, la lógica y los fundamentos de las matemáticas.

 

Biografía del autor/a

Jordi Cat, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University

Jordi Cat received a M.A. from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis in 1995. He has held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin, The London School of Economics and the University of Chicago.
His research interests are in all three areas, philosophy of science, history of science and history of philosophy of science, and in their intersections (philosophy of history next): In particular, issues of unity and pluralism, the application of mathematics, precision and approximation, scientific planning, modeling, causality, visual and material culture and 19th & 20th-century history of physics and philosophy of science (Victorian physics and philosophy of science, especially Maxwell, and Logical Empiricism, especially Neurath).
He has published numerous articles in the history and philosophy of science and history of philosophy of science, and is the author of Fuzzy Pictures as Philosophical Problem and Scientific Practice (Springer 2016), Maxwell, Sutton and the Birth of Color Photography (Palgrave-Macmilan 2013) and co-author of Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Philosophy (Cambridge Univ. Press 1995) with Nancy Cartwright, Lola Fleck and Thomas Uebel.
He co-founded the IU 19th-Century Forum and is a Fellow of the Center for Integrative Photographic Studies. He is currently completing, inter alia, three books, on pluralism and mechanistic and functional explanation, on Polanyi and Neurath on animation, and on the reception of relativity theory and the relation between mathematics, physics and philosophy of science at Indiana University in the early 20th century.
Recent articles include ''The performative construction of natural kinds: mathematical application as practice' (in C. Kendig, ed., Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice, Routledge 2016) and 'Images and logic of the light cone: Tracking Robb's postulational turn in physical geometry' (Revista de Humanidades de Valparaíso 2016).

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Publicado

2016-12-13

Cómo citar

Cat, J. (2016). Las imágenes y la lógica del cono de luz: rastreando el giro postulacional de Robb en la física geométrica. Revista De Humanidades De Valparaíso, (8), 43–105. https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2016iss8pp43-105

Número

Núm. 8 (2016): Año 4, 2016, 2do semestre, N° 8

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