Bertrand Russell is reputed to have said that “science is organized common sense; philosophy is organized piffle”. Although probably being playful, he was articulating the view of many physicists.

You might not understand what philosophers do for a living, but that does not mean their work is meaningless. Robert P Crease tires of hearing physicists trying to kill his profession Alive and ...

Time is an essential part of day-to-day life. Clocks and calendars let people know when to sleep, eat, and where they’re supposed to be each morning. But time is also something much more complicated; ...

In the research field of the history and philosophy of physics, Professor Emeritus Allan Franklin studies the long-term impacts of physics discoveries on the scientific community and the greater ...

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Albert Einstein’s “twin paradox” is a famous counterintuitive implication of the special theory of relativity, but it also reveals deep links between physics and philosophy, as Robert P Crease ...

In my last post, I introduced a discussion of the "anthropic principle," the idea—taken seriously by the religiously inclined and even a few physicists—that the physical nature of the universe was ...

IT is certainly an interesting, almost a sensational, thing that the discoverer of the quantum, which has done more than any other new theory in science to shake the old determmist philosophy, should ...

Office hours: First week of class: Thursday (Feb 6) 1:30-2:30pm. And then Tuesdays 2:30-3:30. I'm happy to set up appointments by e-mail, but please give at least a day's advance notice. Prerequisites ...

Philosophy Needs Physics. Physics Needs Philosophy | RealClearScience Contrary to claims about the irrelevance of philosophy for science, philosophy has always had, and still has, far more influence ...