Re: Hobba's misconceptions

surrealistic-dream wrote:

> Okay, so be it. Let the physics educators require the students to
> purchase a relevant paperback book on the history and philosophy of
> physics that complements the physics textbook the instructor uses. That
> sounds simple enough. But it's a prescription for disaster because the
> instructor is more like than not to be incompetent to teach that
> subject!

Still more likely is that a writer or instructor of history or
philosophy knows far less about modern physics than the average
physics grad student. Furthermore, the grad student specializing
in field X will become exposed to the history and philosophy of
the subject as the student reads the relevant literature and
learns about *the physics* of field X. This requires more time
and energy than simply reading books by people not specialized in
physics, but if the goal is to learn *physics*, it seems to be a
prudent course of action. If the goal is to be able to post
mindless drivel to usenet physics groups, then certainly the
focus should lean toward history and philosophy, and away from
physics and mathematics. We see this here daily.

Without, for instance, an elementary understanding of linear
algebra and its relations to modern physics, there is absolutely
no hope of learning the subject of relativity from historians and
philosophers, regardless of how artfully they are able to
construct a veneer of believability about what dead physicists
*really* meant in their writings.


---Tim Shuba---
.

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