Papers by Fabio Bevilacqua
Eger's contribution towards a rapprochement of Hermeneutics, Science and Science Education i... more Eger's contribution towards a rapprochement of Hermeneutics, Science and Science Education is very welcome. His focus on the problem of misconceptions is relevant. All the same in our opinion some not minor points need a clarification. We will try to argue that: a) Hermeneutics cannot be reduced to a semantical interpretation of science texts; its phenomenological aspects have to be taken in account. b) Science has an unavoidable historical dimension; original papers and advanced textbooks are the real depositaries of scientific research. Standard textbooks are a caricature not worth it of a hermeneutical analysis. c) A parallelism can be traced between two couples of dycothomies: the lifeworld of hermeneutics and the scienceworld of a neo-positivist epistemology on one side and the extraordinary and the normal science on the other. d) For an overcoming of the misconceptions ' problem we propose that the previous dycothomies be bridged through a hermeneutical phenomenologi...
From Physiology to Physics (1845-46).................................................. 11 The Erh... more From Physiology to Physics (1845-46).................................................. 11 The Erhaltung and its two different conceptual roots: the impossibility of perpetual motion and the Newtonian forces
Hermann von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science
marzo 1984 "But in no way can a direct proof of these equations be deduced from experience" Hertz... more marzo 1984 "But in no way can a direct proof of these equations be deduced from experience" Hertz 1888 The history of C.E.T. (Classical Electromagnetic Theory) deserves great attention. A basic problem is still open: why in Lorentz's synthesis, the model of contiguous propagation of electromagnetic interactions was preferred to delayed action-at-adistance. Both approaches in fact explained the time delay and, as is widely known, gave results that were formally equivalent. But at the beginning of the nineties a number of leading Continental scientists had shifted towards contiguous propagation, including Helmholtz, Hertz, Planck, Lorentz and Poincarè. They did not accept the whole of Maxwell's theory: Maxwell's electromagnetic continuum was rejected, but contiguous action was kept. The usual answer to this problem is that Hertz's experiments (1888-1890) played a crucial role in favour of contiguous propagation. The aim of this paper is to show that Hertz's experiment were not crucial at all: evidence is given that Hertz himself did not shift towards contiguous propagation from his previous action-at-adistance approach for experimental reasons and that Poincarè asserted the cruciality of the experiments only from 1894, but changed his judgement again in 1902. Evidence for my interpretation is found in the well-known second volume of Hertz's collected papers: "Electric Waves". This book consists of an experimental and a theoretical introduction, written in 1892, and of a collection of electromagnetic papers
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Papers by Fabio Bevilacqua
First of all I would like to thank for the generous support of the Hertz-Symposium by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and by the Behörde für Wissenschaft und Forschung (BWF) Hamburg. Then I appreciate the help and advice of Roger Stuewer in organising and planning the symposium, which should bring together different scholars interested in Hertz, in his philosophy of science, his achievements in physics and the impact of his discovery of electromagnetic waves, the development of communication technology (beginnings of radio, radar, radio astronomy, electronic music and mobile phone). I am glad that nearly all, who participated during the symposium, have contributed to the book.1 In Hamburg there are some places connected with the life and social impact of Heinrich Hertz: The birthplace (Poststraße 20, D-20354 Hamburg), where a memorial tablet of the „Patriotische Gesellschaft” was fixed October 8, 2007, the house, where he lived during his youth (Magdalenenstraße 3, Hamburg-Rotherbaum), the family grave (Ohlsdorf Cemetery Q25, 1–6), a portrait medaillon in the entrance hall of Hamburg’s Town Hall, a sculpture “airwave” in Eichenpark near Alster shore, made by the jewish artist
Friedrich Wield (1880–1940) in 1931/33. Apart from a Heinrich Hertz street there are three buildings named after Hertz: the Heinrich-Hertz TV tower, the former Heinrich-Hertz-School (“Reform-Realgymnasium”): Architect Albert Erbe, 1908 (Bundesstr. 58,D-20146 Hamburg), and the Heinrich-Hertz-Schule (Grasweg 72–76, D-22303 Hamburg). There were more activities in connection with Hertz’ 150th birthday, especially an
exhibition with the title “Von Hertz zum Handy – Entwicklung der Kommunikationstechnik” was shown in five different places in Hamburg and Wittenberg;2 in addition a catalogue was published in 2007.3 Another event, organised by Gudrun Wolfschmidt,
was meeting of the Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte (Working Group for History of Astronomy) in the Astronomische Gesellschaft, held in the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Würzburg University, September 23 to 24, 2007, with the topic: “Astronomy in new wavelengths – historical studies”.4
1 In addition a DVD about the symposium is published: Handwerk, Agnes und Harrie Willems: Allein mit der Natur. Heinrich Hertz – Experiment und Theorie. Hamburg 2008. A biography of
Heinrich Hertz is prepared for the IWF Wissen und Medien gGmbH in Göttingen.
2 http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/DE/GNT/events/hertz-exh.htm.
3 Wolfschmidt, Gudrun (ed.): Von Hertz zum Handy – Entwicklung der Kommunikationstechnik. Katalog zur Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag von Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894). Norderstedt: Books on Demand (Nuncius Hamburgensis, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Bd. 6) 2007 (360 pages).
4 Short Contributions are published in Astronomische Nachrichten 328 (2007), No. 7.
http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/DE/GNT/events/wuerzburg07.htm
A book about the meeting, edited by Gudrun Wolfschmidt is in preparation.
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