Hughes R.I.G. The Theoretical Practices of Physics: Philosophical Essays

Oxford University Press, 2010, 278 pages, ISBN: 019954610XR.I.G Hughes presents a series of eight philosophical essays on the theoretical practices of physics. The first two essays examine these practices as they appear in physicists' treatises (e.g. Newton's Principia and Opticks) and journal articles (by Einstein, Bohm and Pines, Aharonov and Bohm). By treating these publications as texts, Hughes casts the philosopher of science in the role of critic. This premise guides the following six essays which deal with various concerns of philosophy and physics such as laws, disunities, models and representation, computer simulation, explanation, and the discourse of physics.Criticism, Logical Empiricism, and the General Theory of Relativity
Theoretical Practice: The Bohm–Pines Quartet
Laws of Physics, the Representational Account of Theories, and Newton’s Principia
Modelling, the Brownian Motion, and the Disunities of Physics
Models and Representation
The Ising Model, Computer Simulation, and Universal Physics
Theoretical Explanation
The Discourse of Physics Exemplified by the Aharonov–Bohm Effect