Concept
Phenomenology (physics)
Overview
In physics, phenomenology is the application of theoretical physics to experimental data by making quantitative predictions based upon known theories. It is related to the philosophical notion of phenomenology, in that these predictions describe anticipated behaviors for the phenomena in reality. Phenomenology stands in contrast with experimentation in the scientific method, whose goal is to test a scientific hypothesis instead of making predictions.
Phenomenology is commonly applied to the field of particle physics, where it forms a bridge between the mathematical models of theoretical physics (such as quantum field theories and theories of the structure of space-time) and the results of the high-energy particle experiments. It is sometimes used in other fields such as in condensed matter physics and plasma physics, when there are no existing theories for the observed experimental data.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Simplicity and objectivity do not have to be secured through elaborate and labored metaphysical construction. The data are simple and the hypothesis objective in so far as they accomplish the work where unto they are called--the removal of conflict, ambiguity, and inhibition in conduct and affection. In the experimental conception of inference it is clear that the principles of formal logic must play their role…
John Dewey, Creative Intelligence
States what Phenomenology is.
But all this does not hinder the Hegelian system from playing an incomparably greater role than any earlier system and by virtue of this role developing riches of thought which are astounding even to-day. Phenomenology of the mind (which one may parallel with embryology and palaeontology of the mind), an evolution of the individual consciousness, through its different steps, expressed as a brief reproduction of the…
Friedrich Engels, Feuerbach
Names Phenomenology.
In my Phenomenology of the Spirit, which on that account was at its publication described as the first part of the System of Philosophy, the method adopted was to begin with the first and simplest phase of mind, immediate consciousness, and to show how that stage gradually of necessity worked onward to the philosophical point of view, the necessity of that view being proved by the process. But in these circumstances…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
Opens on Phenomenology; names Phenomenology.
Related ideas
- Mathematical model
- Physics
- Particle physics
- Quantum field theory
- Scientific method
- Philosophy of science
- Standard Model
- Experiment
- Phenomenology (philosophy)
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Interpretations of quantum mechanics.