The revolution in physics at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries was a significant event in both the history of science and the history of philosophy. Various schools of philosophy have interpreted this event differently. Naturally, this is of concern to Marxist philosophy. Based on relatively rich original sources, this article analyzes the historical role, philosophical origin, and end result of two schools in this revolution, the Mechanical School and Critical School. The author offers an interpretation which differs from the traditional one, especially with the respect to the Critical School. This paper is intended to promote academic discussion, to further explore the philosophic significance of this scientific revolution, and to enrich teaching and research in natural dialectics.
From the beginning of the eighteenth century, physicists came to regard Newtonian mechanics as the research program for all fields of physics, to the extent that it became the supreme authority and ultimate standard of scientific interpretation. Until the end of the nineteenth century, physicists almost universally believed that all physical phenomena could be explained from the perspective of mechanics.
However, the end of the nineteenth century witnessed a continuous stream of new experiments and discoveries which severely shook the foundations of physics, leading to a crisis. Under such circumstances, some physicists came to doubt the universal application and absolute reliability of the classical theory. One after another, they began to criticize the basic concepts and principles within classical mechanics and to challenge the dominant mechanistic viewpoint. Thus, diversity replaced unity, and physicists formed schools which differed from each other even in their basic guiding ideologies. Some scholars have divided them into the Energetic School, the Mechanical School, and, intermediate between these, the Critical School. Others have identified them as the Realist and Symbolic Schools. I would like to classify them into the Mechanical School and the Critical School, based on the different attitudes toward classical mechanics.
Some previous publications in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Japan and China have tended to overemphasize the Mechanical School and belittle the Critical School, even entirely denying its role in the development of physics. I think this is not entirely accurate. This article undertakes a preliminary examination and discussion of this issue, based on the historical context and relevant original sources.
I. Two Historical Roles
What role did each of these two schools play at the turn of the century during the crisis in physics and the beginning of the revolution? First, it must be noted that the Mechanical School, which possessed an absolute superiority in numbers, made indelible contributions to the development of classical physics. An early representative of this school, G.R. Kirchhoff, did extensive work in electricity and spectral analysis. In 1859 he proposed the law of cavity radiation, which was an important milestone in research on heat radiation. H. von Helmholtz made outstanding contributions to thermodynamics and electricity. In 1847 he published an important book, Uber die Erhaltung der kraft, about energy conservation and conversion. J.C. Maxwell contributed to thermodynamics, optics, molecular physics, the theory of the characteristics of fluids, etc. In particular, he proposed the distribution law of molecular motion and the law of equipartition of energy in 1859, and the electromagnetic field equations in 1864, which formed the theoretical foundations for statistical mechanics and electromagneticsm. L. Boltzmann, who was still active in physics at the turn of the century, also greatly contributed to the development of kinetic theory, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. His probabilistic explanation of the second law of thermodynamics is well known. Lord Rayleigh made achievements in acoustics and vibration, optical theory, heat radiation, etc. Lord Kelvin, a veteran in physics, contributed tremendously to theoretical and experimental investigations of heat and electricity. Lorentz devoted himself to research on electronic theory from 1875. Electron Theory, which he published in 1909, was the last great edifice of classical theory. Obviously, the contributions of the Critical School to classical physics cannot be compared to those of the Mechanical School. The latter developed classical theory to perfection, inadvertently providing the necessary conditions for the coming revolution in physics.
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