Brief overview on W. Heisenberg’s and I. Supek’s epistemic analyses of the role of Bošković’s theory in science

Tina Domazet & Maja Zokić

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), Croatia

Abstract

R. J. Bošković (1711-1787) is unquestionably one of the greatest European philosophers and scientists of all time. The position that research into Bošković’s theory of natural philosophy has neither been closed nor complete has been decisive for the history of science and technology in Croatia. Thus, interpretations of Bošković’s thought and work within the framework of the S091 symposium in Manchester in 2013 are very important. We were introduced to Bošković’s achievements in physics during lectures on general physics. Having read his Theory of Natural Philosophy (1758), it became obvious that we wish to continue researching it until we understand the depth of his insights. Ivan Supek (1915-2007), a Croatian theoretical physicist, philosopher and historian of science, writer, ethicist and world famous peacemaker, founder and architect of the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb after WWII, also researched Bošković’s work and role in modern science. He gained his PhD in solid state physics in 1940 in Leipzig (mentored by F. Hund & W. Heisenberg), which was the first doctorate in theoretical physics in Croatia and former Yugoslavia. We studied Supek’s important philosophical work on Bošković, his Ruđer Bošković, vizionar u prijelomima filozofije, znanosti i društva (Zagreb 1989). Supek was particularly fascinated by the fact that Bošković dared to reduce the philosophy of nature as such to a single universal law of forces. He held that Bošković was one of the last geniuses who undertook more work than man could possibly handle. On the other hand, in Gesammelte Werke (Physik und Erkenntnis), Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) often wrote about and reflected on Greek philosophy and the doctrine of atoms (Atomlehre, Leucippus & Democritus), Plato’s Timaeus and other dialogues, and atomic and modern particle physics. Almost two millennia elapsed before the modern model and theory of atoms was developed, and it is to Bošković, Faraday and Maxwell that we owe the brilliant insight into the space within the atom which is not empty due to a force and/or a field within it. However, Heisenberg does not mention Bošković in his original work, except in the unpublished manuscript of the speech he gave in German at the University of Zagreb in 1969 when he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Gesammelte Werke, Abteilung C, Band V, Piper, 1989, pp. 427-432). In it, he refers to Bošković as “a great philosopher and researcher of atoms in atomic theory” or as “a great mathematician, physicist and astronomer”, who 250 years ago recognised the first theory of the atom in nature, which has significantly influenced the later development of the natural sciences.

This presentation is based on work co-authored by Maja Zokić.