A new answer to the Needham Question, or Who, how and why did invent the modern physics?

Gennady Gorelik

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arXiv · 1106.6345

A new answer to the Needham Question, or Who, how and why did invent the modern physics?

Gennady Gorelik

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Abstract

The cultural infrastructure that let Galileo invent the modern physics is discussed. The key new element of modern physics was firm belief in its fundamental structure, which could be expressed in the double postulate: 1) There are fundamental axioms that all the physical laws could be deduced from; those axioms are not evident, as invisible as the underground foundation stones, or, in Latin, fundamentum; 2) The human mind is able to probe into this fundamental level of the Universe to understand its working, and any person is free to contribute in the process of this probing and understanding. Experimentalism and mathematization were just the tools to realize this belief. The modern science was invented in the time when the Bible played the most prominent cultural role in its history due to Gutenberg and Reformation. All the originators of the modern physics were profound biblical believers, and for them the fundamental double postulate was supported by the basic postulates of Biblical worldview. Keywords - the Needham Question; the Scientific Revolution; modern physics; cultural infrastructure; Biblical civilization; theory of gravity

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Gennady Gorelik. 2011-06-30. A new answer to the Needham Question, or Who, how and why did invent the modern physics?. https://arxiv.org/abs/1106.6345

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