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From: weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sci
Subject: Completeness of Theories
Message-ID: <12815@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Mon, 31-Mar-86 16:12:16 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.12815
Posted: Mon Mar 31 16:12:16 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Apr-86 08:02:08 EST
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Reply-To: weemba@brahms.UUCP (Matthew P. Wiener)
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Summary: a belated reply to a request of Barry Kort

In article <721@hounx.UUCP> kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT) writes:
>It is interesting to note the see-saw leap frogging between the development
>of new branches of mathematics, and their application to theoretical physics.
>(Perhaps Matthew Wiener could help me illustrate this hand-in-hand evolution.
>It is not an accident that Newton invented the Calculus.  It was a necessary
>tool of thought for his elucidation of the laws of motion.)

I don't plan to illustrate this hand-in-hand evolution.  I will point out
that for about half a century, from 1915-1965, the two fields of study
diverged quite strongly, with minimal interaction, at the expense of both
fields.  But the last twenty years have seen a remarkable and rather
surprising resurgence in fundamental ties and applications, both from
mathematics to physics and vice versa.

"In the thirties, under the demoralizing influence of quantum-theoretic
perturbation theory, the mathematics required of a theoretical physicist
was reduced to a rudimentary knowledge of the Latin and Greek alphabets"
							-R Jost

ucbvax!brahms!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720