The Growth of Rationalism: In Our Concepts of Physical Nature

Abstract

Physics is believed to be the scientific discipline most devoted to a rationalisation of our understanding of nature. However, it is not easy to specify which aspects of nature can be defined by rationality and how in practice this is obtained. This review investigates what heuristic methods are used by physicists to model natural phenomena with the help of such rationalistic concepts. The most basic concept is the ‘ratio’ between different facts and numbers, and this concept has proved most helpful for the clarification of what rationalism implies. It has been found that rationalistic concepts have an eminently ‘relationalistic’ character. The following are investigated in detail: rationality gained by series laws or creation algorithms, by symmetry principles or extrema principles. Examples of all branches of physics are studied, and it is found that physical realities can be approached only when rationalistic concepts are used to model nature. A completely opposite point of view, the Buddhistic way of thinking has proved a challenging comparison with rationalistic concepts. It is felt by the author, and formulated as a provocative thesis, that reality consists only of that part of the world which we understand. Where nature cannot be imprisoned by our logic concepts, we cannot have it as a reality.