History of Science, Technology and Medicine Colloquium, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN

Description

A Virtuous Theorist’s Theoretical Virtues: Einstein on Physics versus Mathematics and Experience versus Unification

When Albert Einstein formulated the general theory of relativity, he combined a physical and mathematical approach, as Renn and others have shown. He retained and explicitly referred to these categories in his later work on unified field theory as well, but emphasized their usefulness differently, just as his later recollections of how he found general relativity gradually changed. These altered recollections were not only the consequence of his new, highly mathematical unification program, but also served as an advertisement for that program: Einstein enlisted idealizations of himself as justification for his highly controversial work.

Period	31 Oct 2014
Event type	Conference
Location	Minneapolis, United StatesShow on map