TL;DR
This paper explores the evolution of metaphysical concepts of reality through historical perspectives of key thinkers, highlighting how metaphysical questions have shaped scientific understanding over millennia.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive historical analysis of how metaphysical ideas have influenced the development of physics and our conception of reality.
Findings
Metaphysical questions have historically driven scientific revolutions.
Changing views of reality reflect shifts in philosophical and scientific paradigms.
Key figures' perspectives illustrate the evolution of metaphysical thought in science.
Abstract
Metaphysics is the science of being and asks the question ``What really exists?'' The answer to this question has been sought for by mankind since the beginning of recorded time. In the past 2500 years there have been many answers to this question and these answers dominate our view of how physics is done. Examples of questions which were originally metaphysical are the shape of the earth, the motion of the earth, the existence of atoms, the relativity of space and time, the uncertainty principle, the renormalization of field theory and the existence of quarks and strings. I will explore our changing conception of what constitutes reality by examining the views of Aristotle, Ptolemy, St. Thomas Aquinas, Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Leibnitz, Compte, Einstein, Bohr, Feynman, Schwinger, Yang, Gell-Mann, Wilson and Witten.
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Taxonomy
TopicsClassical Philosophy and Thought