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Philosophical Physics

Name: Philosophical Physics
Brand: Bloomsbury Publishing (AUS)
Price: 86.75 AUD
Availability: PreOrder

Realism, Instrumentalism, and Positivism in History

By: Manuel DeLanda

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Paperback | 4 February 2027

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Format
Paperback

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 13.8

Paperback

$86.75

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Available: 4th February 2027

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Philosophical Physics is the latest instalment in Manuel DeLandaâs intervention in the philosophy of science.

Rejecting the traditional empiricist vocabulary of âTheory,â âObservation,â and âPhysical Law,â DeLanda argues that the objective content of physics is better understood through equations, measurements, instruments, and the evolving practices of scientific communities. Against monolithic accounts of scientific development, the book presents physics as a dynamic field composed of three interacting elements: domains of phenomena, communities of practitioners, and the material techniques that connect the two. Through detailed historical studies of mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, and relativity, DeLanda traces how new phenomena were created, stabilized, measured, and mathematically represented.

Central to the book is a novel account of realism. Drawing on the work of physicists, engineers, instrument makers, and mathematicians, DeLanda develops a framework that combines causal realism â" focused on mechanisms and interventions â" with modal realism, which emphasizes the objective structures of possibility revealed by mathematical models. From Newtonâs celestial mechanics and Carnotâs heat engines to Maxwellâs fields and Einsteinâs spacetime, physics emerges as a heterogeneous and evolving practice shaped by experiment, calculation, invention, and abstraction.

Philosophical Physics is essential reading for philosophers of science, historians of science, and scholars interested in realism, scientific practice, and the conceptual foundations of modern physics.

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