The value of statistical laws in physics and social sciences
The deterministic conception of nature implies in itself a real cause of weakness in the irremediable contradiction that it faces with the most certain data of our consciousness. G. SOREL attempted to compose this disagreement with the distinction between artificial nature and natural nature (this last acausal), but in this way he denied the unity of science. On the other hand, the formal analogy between the statistical laws of physics and the ones of social sciences credited the opinion that human facts also undergo a rigid determinism. It is therefore important that quantum mechanics principles have brought to recognize the statistical character of basic laws of elementary processes, in addition to a certain absence of objectiveness in the description of phenomena. This conclusion has made essential the analogy between physics and social sciences, between which it turned out an identity of value and method.
- G. Sorel, De l’utilité du pragmatisme, Cap. IV, Paris 1921.
- The reader desiring to study thoroughly the knowledge in this matter by avoiding where possible the mathematical difficulty can consult W. Heisenberg, Die Physikalischen Prinzipien der Quantentheorie, Lipsia, 1930.
- E. Amaldi, op. cit.
- L. Bachelier, Thèorie de la spèculation, Ph.D. Thesis in mathematics, Annales Scientifiques de l’Ecole Normale Supèrieure, III-17 (1900) 21–86.
- The value of statistical laws in physics and social sciences
- Book Title
- Ettore Majorana Scientific Papers
- Book Subtitle
- On occasion of the centenary of his birth
- pp 237-260
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- Springer Berlin Heidelberg
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- SIF, Bologna - Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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