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Se.ssa- $. lssN 0193-3396 Nos.7/8 $6'50 SCIENCE NATURE Reader On classes, ideals, and axiomatics feedback Letters to the Editor Science Beatrice Lumpkin on a feminist mathematician in life Sofia Kovalevskaia, Revolutionary JAMES LAWLER: The responsibility of scientists Reflections on Brecht's Galileo 16 MICHAEL PARENTI: On the socialsciences The Explanatory Power of Marxism 21 A scientist of conscience Edward Lee Cooperman 1936-1984 28 Science At a lively New York Academy conference practice The Search for Quantum Reality 30 MARTIN DAVIS: An interview Nonstandard Analysis as Paradigm? 34 IRVING ADLER: The phyllotaxis problem Dialectics in Theoretical Biology 43 Human JACINTHE BARIBEAU:The TrAn Duc Thao theses nature Origins of Consciousness 56 CLAUDE BFIAUN:The foundations of behavior Marxist Approaches to PsychologY 66 Theory ot LESTER TALKINGTON:The problem of induction thought ls the Creative Process Rational? 78 Taking VAN HOUTEN & PAPPADEMOS vs. TALKINGTON /ssue On Big Bang "Creationism" and Marxist Methodology in Science 91 Book Reviews, Listed on Back Cover Our masthead emblem symbolizes the dialectical interpenetration of science and nature, suggesting the manifold interconnections Nos. 7/8 between scientific knowledge, ideal in form, and material nature, rellected in this knowledge. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR An independent reader-supported journal addressing the philosophical, historical and sociological problems of the natural sciences, i.e., the physical, biological and formal (mathematical and logical) disciplines. Editorial priorities: To demonstrate the usefulness of the Marx ist world view in Does this joumalhave a "clgss" angle? the p cience. To help d the principles of dialectical I teach medical radiation science for students studying to become diagnostic mate Marxist theory of their interaction with advancing x-ray technicians. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that the kind of natur To help deal with blems that scientists face in their ideas raised in Science and Nature arouse more interest among the technical professional activities. students, predominantly working-class and minority, than among radiology residents (M.D.s) or among the upscale wealthier students in my physics SCIENCE AND NATURE phone (914) 359-2283 courses at Northeastem University. For example, some students found your 53 Hickory Hill Road, Tappan NY 10983 (USA) perspective on "Contradiction in Wave-Particle Duality" [S&N #2] quite edifying after struggling through the conventional presentation ofthe "dual- natured photon" given in the assigned, authoritative physics text. I'd like to see this as a question of social "class" but am inclined to think that your compact format and concise presentation (free of statistical jargon and standard science-journal graphics) play as much a role in getting students to relate to the articles as does their social background. Robert R. Montgomery utside U.S., add $1 .00; airmait Program Dhector, Radiologic Technology Money Order or draft on U.S. North Shore Community College nstitutions); outside U.S., add Beverly, Mass 01915 in The Left lndex, Alternative What Marrism Is AllAbout Copyright 1986 by Dialectics Workshop, 53 Hickory Hiil Rd., Tappan Ny 10983 I am very impressed with your publication. It has been an ideal "find" after a lnstruc to Contributors: Con to the long search for a periodical that attempts to connect all the sciences under one unified philosophy. editorial ies stated above. Thou nerally to I wish to subscribe and acquire all the back issues. a mains approach to the philoso based on the writi Frederick Engels, contr k to Chris Barter correct, develop further or dispute this orientation. Albany CA 94706 On Artomatics versus Dialectics in Quanfiim Mechanics Max Robinson's paper was a useful reminder of the inadequacies and contradictions in the conventional interpretation of quantum mechanics that is used to support all kinds of mystical notions ["Is Quantum Mechanics a Scientific Theory?", S&N #61, but he was properly criticized for his confusing remarks on philosophy of science [Motz, Talkington, ibid.). I wish to expand on some critical comments made there, as the basis for providing a concrete example to suppoft them. captions (with i count allov,.,ed for space to be occupied by My main concern is with philosophical problems raised by Robinson's figures, which ings). Manuscripts produced by word processor claim that there are only "differences in detail" between dialectical materialism should be tran if possible. (Engels, Lenin) and "scientific" materialism or realism (Popper, Russell, i Id , and only for if dy of text. page 1 ' e" in detail inlhe Chicago Manual of Style 13th edition (Chicago & London: Univ. of Chicago pr., 1969), ch. 15. For examples, see the article on pp 78-89 of this issue. Bunge). There is, however, a fundamental difference in that one view insists class of local hidden variable theories gives very good agreement with nature is dialectical whereas, in the other view, this concept is strongly attacked. For example, Bunge recently attacked the claim of universality for Marxist dialectics, asserting that the laws governing thought bear no relationship to the laws of nature since the former are man-made and the latter are not lScientiftc Materialism, Reidel 19811. Thus, the impression is left that the laws of thought emerged in some mysterious but unspecified process, and that concepts of matter are largely divorced from matter itself. This is a strange position for one who goes to great (and commendable) pains to defend materialism per se. For Bunge, a former Marxist, (formal) logic is now a priori and is applicable to any field of study, which leads to his heavy emphasis on the axiomatic approach. This account ignores the historical development of logic (What would Bunge make of multivalued logic?), and gives a universality to formal logical principles which he would deny to dialectics. The Bunge critique needs to be addressed seriously by Man<ist Stanley Jeffers scientists and I hope such a critique will be developed in the pages of Scierce Physics Depanment andNature. York University (Ontario) Consistent with his emphasis.on rigorous formal logic, Bunge advocates axiomatics as primary to the scientific method, particularly in quantum mechanics. But axiomatic formulations always take place after a break- through has been made in some area of science, and have no direct bearing on the process of scientific discovery itself. To suggest that axiomatic formulations are useful for the further development of science is misleading and, in fact, the opposite may be closer to the truth. A case in point concerns quantum mechanics and Diac's axiom that position and momentum operators do not commute, i.e., that pg-gp=ihl2n follows from the Uncertainty Principle of Heisenberg. Recently a remark- able paper by graduate student Joseph Godfrey (Notre Dame) has shown "how to obtain the Dirac Commutator from the l,ondon-Weyl formalism."! fPhys Rev Letters 16 Apr 1984]. Godfrey uses Weyl's projective geometry On Dialectics and the Iagic of Nature to deduce the Dirac axiom, treating the geometrical properties of space as being in part determined by the particle used to probe that space. The physical notion of a particle's interaction with space is dialectical in the sense that a particle's motion affects the local geometry and the resulting distortion of the local geometry affects the particle's subsequent motion, leading to a profound interconnection between the position and momentum of a particle. "subjcct malter" whose objective reality we reflect in our minds, then they can only be In other words, where Dirac postulated the axiom, Godfrey has deduced it introsptctivcly induced, metaphysical postulates applicable a priarl The old story..' poor from more basic principles of physical relations. This new development in matter is the damsel in distress until Logic, with its shining armour of Categories' comes physics could certainly not have been made on the basis of Dirac's axiom, to the rescue! On this ruling class absurdity, "revolutionary" praxis and conservative and thus provides a clear demonstration not only the inadequacy positivism speak with one voice..,.. of of a Bunge's attempts to axiomatize quantum mechanics but also the general Dialectics do not require the helping hand of consciousness before they catr become reality weakness of strict dependence on formal logic alone. makin Godfrey comments at the end of his paper: "One can only wonder if thousa Einstein might have recognized here some confirmation of his views on with d quantum mechanics." I think Einstein would indeed regard Godfrey's work l-gst time to the world a critical and revolutionary concept which, as Marx puts it, "lets as confirmation of his view that quantum mechanics is not complete. nothing impose upon it" - the dialectic in its consistently rational form. A dialectic which Recently it has been claimed that the Aspect experiments on photon correla- can only exist iz human society because it existed before it. tion [Phys Rev D 14:.1944;1976] validate orthodox quantum mechanics as - John Hoffmaa, Marxism anil the Theoty o:f Prarh. NY: Intl. 1975 pp 181,69. opposed to hidden variable accounts, but this interpretation has been challenged by Marshall fPhys Leners 3 Oct i9831 who demonstrates that one Page Science and Nature Nos. 7/8 2 L€tters to Editor Page 3 Smimov 1965;2l7fl. As modern capitalism was just beginning to expand in The 1 9th-ce ntu ry's g reatest wo man mathe matician Russia, the prophetic death knell ofcapitalism had already been sounded in the heroic Paris Commune of 1871. Kovalevskaia felt the impact of these progressive upheavals as a child, witnessing the Peasant Reform and growing up with the story of her favorite Kovalevskaia Lived uncle's wife who had been executed by her serfs in retaliation for her More Than One Kind of Revolution unbearable cruelty. As an adult, she herself participated in the Paris Commune, serving as a nurse for six weeks.