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Recent Changes in the Concept of Matter: How Does ‘Elementary Particle’ Mean?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

K. S. Shrader-Frechette
K. S. Shrader-Frechette*
Affiliation:
University of Louisville
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Extract

“How does a poem mean?” asked John Ciardi, noted poet and critic (1959, p. 663). Because he was convinced that “there will never be a complete system for understanding poetry,” Ciardi urged his Harvard and Rutgers students to discover “the total experience” of a poem and never to look merely for what it means (1959, p. 666).

Like a good poem, the total meaning of the concept of matter always eludes us. As Heisenberg put it: what we know is not nature itself, but “nature exposed to our method of questioning.” (Cited in Capra 1975, p. 126). For this reason, and because high-energy physics is in a state of rapid development, it would be presumptuous to attempt to say what matter or elementary particles are (See Woodruff 1963, p. 578). Moreover this “what” question is more properly a scientific one, about the correct referents of a specific theory of matter. “How does ‘matter’ mean?” or “how does ‘elementary particle’ mean?” is more properly a philosophical question.

Type
Part X. Time, Causation and Matter
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 302 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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