Jump to content

Wolfgang Smith

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ImageRemovalBot (talk | contribs) at 21:43, 9 May 2008 (Removing deleted image). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

J. Wolfgang Smith
Era20th century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolRealism, Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, Neo-Scholasticism, Traditionalism
Main interests
Metaphysics, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy of science
Notable ideas
Completely splitting the scientific method from the scientistic philosophy; showing how the former can be joined to a thomistic-based ontological realism; assigning to many hard sciences a place in such an ontological hierarchy.

Wolfgang Smith (born 1930) is a mathematician, physicist, philosopher of science, metaphysician and Roman catholic perennialist. He has written extensively in the field of differential geometry, as a critic of Scientism and as a proponent of an ontological realist interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Biography

Smith graduated in 1948 from Cornell University with a B.A. in Philosophy, Physics and Mathematics. Two years later he obtained his M.S. in Physics from Purdue University, and some time later a Ph.D in Mathematics from Columbia University.

He worked as a physicist in Bell Aircraft corporation, researching aerodynamics and the problem of atmospheric reentry,[citation needed] and as a Mathematics professor at MIT, UCLA and Oregon State University, doing research in the field of differential geometry and publishing mathematical articles in prestigious academic journals.

In parallel he developed philosophical researches in the fields of Metaphysics and Philosophy of science, developing a new, non-scientistic interpretation of quantum mechanics that draws heavily from the realisms of ancient ontologies.

In 1992 he retired from academic life, continuing to this day his philosophical research.

Philosophy

Smith is a member of the Traditionalist School of Metaphysics, having contributed extensively to its criticism of modernity while exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the scientific method. In his work Cosmos and Transcendence (1984), Smith examines the scientistic and Cartesian basis of modern physical sciences, while in The Quantum Enigma (1995) he shows how such philosophical assumptions may hamper our understanding of quantum mechanics. His writings constantly emphasize the idea of bringing science back into the Aristotlean framework of traditional ontological realism.

Smith is philosophically an opponent of both Darwinian evolution and fundamentalist creationisms. In practice this causes him to support the intelligent design movement wish for recognition as a counter-point to what he understands to be dogmatic Evolutionism.

Bibliography

Books

Books written by Wolfgang Smith or including his contributions:

Template:Ref indent

  • Cosmos and Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief. Peru: Sherwood Sugden. 1984. ISBN 0893850284. OCLC 12945771.

Template:Ref indent-end

Articles

General

Articles on philosophy, religion, physics and non-mathematical subjects in general:

Template:Ref indent

Template:Ref indent-end

Mathematics

Academic articles on mathematics signed as "J. Wolfgang Smith":

Template:Ref indent

Template:Ref indent-end

See also

References

Template:Ref indent

  1. ^ a b c The associated DOI link doesn't work, even though it's referred in the article's meta data. It has already been reported to DOI and should be working again in a few days.
  2. ^ a b c With Yeaton H. Clifton.
  3. ^ With Patrick C. Endicott.

Template:Ref indent-end

Template:Persondata

{{subst:#if:Smith, Wolfgang|}} [[Category:{{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:1930}} 

|| UNKNOWN | MISSING = Year of birth missing {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:}}||LIVING=(living people)}}
| #default = 1930 births

}}]] {{subst:#switch:{{subst:uc:}} 

|| LIVING  = 
| MISSING  = 
| UNKNOWN  = 
| #default =

}}

Stub icon

This article about a philosopher is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolfgang_Smith&oldid=211343980"