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What is it to be Physical?

Borgheai, Bahram | 2008

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 40521 (42)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Philosophy of Science
  6. Advisor(s): Golshani, Mahdi
  7. Abstract:
  8. In this text to find the answer of the question “ what is it to be physical” in a definition form or a scheme of the term physical, firstly we sought for a possible consensus among recent physicists and philosophers. But from their answers not only we did not find any clear consensus but also most of them confess that the term is ambiguous and unclear. In a general aspect, we can categorize the answers to two theoretical and realistic perspective. The theoretical perspective, beside circularity and Hempel’s triviality, seems not to present any criteria for being physical. In realistic perspective, it seems that there is no ontologic constraint for being physical, that is from “being physical” we cannot reach any “special way of being”. Then based on common sense of “physical” we extract related concepts as follows to se whether we can find a criteria for being physical: materialistic or having material substance, observable, space and time related, objective, individual and enumerative. But not successful. So in this situation, we either should ,with a open mind, be ready to accept any being entity which is introduced by Physics or save our old common sense, but separate physical from belonging to Physics, and then in consequence leave realistic physicalism. Or free from any philosophical arguments, like most of physicists, separate theory from action, and although may being not so easy ,in spite of possible idealistic views pragmatistically behave like a classic realist.
  9. Keywords:
  10. Wave Function ; Objective Approach ; Reductionism ; Physicalism ; Entity ; Property ; Thing Language ; Observable

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