Slobodan Perovic
Carleton University, Canada
Academic Year 2009-10
What Makes Physics (Un)successful?: Decentralized Experimentation Versus The Physics of Big Experiments

I have studied or taught at eight different Universities in Europe and in North America. This resulted in, among other things, many international friendships with scholars across humanities and sciences, who have been immensely helpful in coping with my numerous interests in philosophy and sciences.

In history and philosophy of physics I primarily focus on epistemological ramifications of the early debate over the foundations of quantum mechanics. I believe and argue, in my published and un-published papers, that the experimental issues predominantly drove the debate, counter to the accounts of some prominent philosophers and historians of physics. I am also working on a related project concerning the methodological foundations of early quantum mechanics. In short, the methodology that Niels Bohr employed was a variation on Bacon’s method of the so-called eliminative induction. While at the Center I will address a presumed crisis in contemporary particle physics that I believe might have to do with a major change in the nature of the experimental work after the WWII. More precisely, t he current state of physics stands, as I hope to demonstrate, in stark contrast to the early 20th century milestone development of Quantum Mechanics that can serve as a template of experimental (as well as epistemic and ontological) diversity, the current lack of which might help explain the presumed crisis.

Another aspect of my research concerns traditional problems of reductionism, determinism, and causality. I believe that our understanding of such philosophical issues should be informed by and critically assessed against relevant empirical research. Thus, I have explored how relevant contemporary approaches in the natural sciences, especially in physics and biology, may impact metaphysical debates.