Abstract
Many rational aspects of some fields of physics, including those related to the process of discovery, may be better understood using methodological tools typical of the philosophical analysis of science. Throughout this paper we shall use the heuristic tradition of Descartes' analytical (or discovery) method for a rational reconstruction of Gibbs' thermodynamics, or thermodynamics of potentials, seeking to emphasize the potentialities of the representational character of science. Our contention is that Descartes's method of discovery illuminates the intellectual itinerary of the construction of the thermodynamics of potentials.
Highlights
We can say that the goal of science is to produce adequate and satisfactory explanations for phenomena that strike us
The reformulation of thermodynamics developed by Gibbs constitutes an excellent example of a theory elaborated according to a heuristic tradition that we identify with Descartes’ method of analysis, to which he refers as a method of construction or discovery
The construction of the thermodynamics of potentials was accomplished by Gibbs through a process in which the representation of the energy of a homogeneous substance in the most adequate configuration space, that of U × S × V, is followed, for physical and mathematical reasons, by the enunciation of the equilibrium and stability criterion, the highest principle and the conclusion of the analytical movement
Summary
We can say that the goal of science is to produce adequate and satisfactory explanations for phenomena that strike us. The reformulation of thermodynamics developed by Gibbs constitutes an excellent example of a theory elaborated according to a heuristic tradition that we identify with Descartes’ method of analysis, to which he refers as a method of construction or discovery. From this perspective, discovery becomes amenable to rational reconstruction, since a theoretical construction like Gibbs, carried out according to the method of analysis, is a discovery.
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