Representing Electrons: A Biographical Approach to Theoretical Entities - Softcover

Arabatzis, Theodore

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226024210 ISBN 13: 9780226024219

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Synopsis

Both a history and a metahistory, Representing Electrons focuses on the development of various theoretical representations of electrons from the late 1890s to 1925 and the methodological problems associated with writing about unobservable scientific entities.

Using the electron—or rather its representation—as a historical actor, Theodore Arabatzis illustrates the emergence and gradual consolidation of its representation in physics, its career throughout old quantum theory, and its appropriation and reinterpretation by chemists. As Arabatzis develops this novel biographical approach, he portrays scientific representations as partly autonomous agents with lives of their own. Furthermore, he argues that the considerable variance in the representation of the electron does not undermine its stable identity or existence.

Raising philosophical issues of contentious debate in the history and philosophy of science—namely, scientific realism and meaning change—Arabatzis addresses the history of the electron across disciplines, integrating historical narrative with philosophical analysis in a book that will be a touchstone for historians and philosophers of science and scientists alike.

About this title

About the Author

Theodore Arabatzis is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Athens.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226024210
• ISBN 13: 9780226024219
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 309