The Geometric in Contemporary Physics: Philosophical examination of a theme in the history of scientific ideas

• Grant number: 19/14654-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 09, 2019
• End date: January 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Valter Alnis Bezerra
• Grantee: Taimara Passero
• Supervisor: Dennis Lehmkuhl
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universität Bonn, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/26182-6 - The geometric in contemporary physics: philosophical examination of a theme in the history of scientific ideas, BP.DR

Abstract

At different moments in the history of science, it is possible to see some aspects of geometry playing relevant roles in physics. In fact, the importance of geometric thinking is, in some cases, so large as to make us wonder whether geometrization does in some way constitute a peculiar and pervasive made of constituting scientific knowledge. We will think about it in contemporary physics, specifically in Einstein's theory of general relativity. Our purpose is to investigate what would be the geometric on geometrization, considering it as a methodological theme within a philosophical register, namely: a style of reasoning, an image of science, a language, or an heuristic. A methodological theme is a preference for a certain way of practice in the development of scientific theory. We do not understand it by something with strict rules, nevertheless it is normative in some general sense. To choose one of the philosophical registers means that geometrization has been given different roles and statuses, not just reducing physics to geometry, or considering it a tool to obtain a physical theory, but a way to think and to construct a worldview that takes into account a peculiarly geometrical way to understand the nature.