“Man errs as long as he strives”: Justifying the quantum of action
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7941.2024.e98462Keywords:
Rationality, Underdetermination, Case-Based Teaching, Nobel PrizeAbstract
“An act of despair” is the quotation most associated with Planck regarding his postulate. Not without a reason: it is representative of what concerns the simultaneously shocking and clarifying character of the quantum of action. On emphasizing such a feeling, this quotation seems to paint the scientific endeavor in vivid subjective, and thus irrational, colors. Planck’s Nobel Lecture, however rich in expressions of awe, can interestingly and ironically lead us to a very different image of science; through his process of rationalization, he enunciates the evidences, methods, and values that had to be rigged for the quantum of action to show its meaning and potential. Laudan’s perspective of science as a problem-solving, rational activity concedes an interesting background of this rationalization; articulating the model to Planck’s words, one can see that, even though scientific hypotheses can sometimes be almost unbelievable and underdetermination can render science despairing, it is precisely in erring and wandering that rationality can reside. Planck’s Nobel Lecture can be an interesting source for story-case teaching, because it associates cognitive aspects to those rendered as human, in a historical episode already welcomed in physics teaching.
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