Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...

Back Cover: Dr Faustus of Modern Physics
This book presents the Faustian drama of the transition from classical to
modern physics at the turn to the 20th century, when leading scientists sacrificed
basic principles of rationality of classical science in order to save science
from collapse when faced with certain seemingly intolerable paradoxes, and
thereby rose to great fame.
The book is written as a tribunal against five accused: Boltzmann, Planck,
Einstein, Bohr in physics and Prandtl in fluid mechanics, with the reader as
judge. The accusations concern violation of the principles of rationality of
causality and determinism, reality of space and time, well-posedness and
logic.
The book presents evidence in the form of general background material,
witnesses and confessions by the accused from the literature, and leaves to the
reader to decide if crimes against science were committed and if so mitigations
can be found.
The book addresses the following questions: What was the nature of the
sacrifice? Was it a crime? Is the crime repeated in education today? Are
we being brainbwashed to give up rationality? What was the motivation to
give up rationality? Why did Einstein never accept giving up causality and
determinism? What are the consequences today? Are there other solutions of
the paradoxes which do not require giving up basic principles of rationality?
The book is directed to a general audience using a non-technical language
without mathematical notation.
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