Arts and Society

I suppose a world whose various parts possess a heat conductivity so perfect that they are constantly in equilibrium of temperature. The inhabitants of this world would have no idea of ​​what we call temperature difference; in their treatises on … Read More

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So we like sugar, the confession is made! But our young students love him as much and more than us! It must be filled! In the absence of sugar, they need – this is more respectable – sweet and sweeten … Read More

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Let us now turn to another point of view. The laws that direct observation gives us are never more than results. Take for example the law of Mariotte. For most physicists, this is only a consequence of the kinetic theory … Read More

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Alas! Alas! I realize that I drive from stranger to stranger and that, after explaining who we are, we, one of the great nations among the ants, I must now explain what is an expedition of cows. This explanation is … Read More

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And if humanity were to last longer than we have supposed, long enough to see the laws evolve before its eyes? Or even if it came to acquire instruments delicate enough that this variation, slow as it is, becomes sensitive … Read More

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(The wave-particle duality, in which we can see how the same phenomenon can be perceived in two different ways, was one of the philosophical problems posed by quantum mechanics.) The philosophy of physics refers to the set of philosophical reflections … Read More

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I raised this question incidentally only; it deserves to be thought about; but I do not want to be dragged too far from my subject. Is it possible that the contradictions of geologists never lead scientists to conclude the evolution … Read More

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John Locke imagined what would happen if a prince’s mind had been transported into a shoemaker’s body by replacing the shoemaker’s mind. On the outside it would look like a shoemaker, but the inner feeling would be the prince, ”For … Read More

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Let me digress here. We have just seen that the geologist possesses an instrument which the mathematician misses and which enables him to conclude from the present to the past. Why does the same instrument not allow us to conclude … Read More

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At this point, we can oppose an argument of fact. “You say that in seeking to ascend, thanks to the knowledge of the laws, from the present to the past, one will never meet with a contradiction, and yet the … Read More

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