Kuhn's interpretation of Boltzmann's statistical heredity in Planck

P. Cerreta

pp. 139-146

in: Claudio Garola, Arcangelo Rossi (eds), The foundations of quantum mechanics, Berlin, Springer, 1995

Abstract

The heart of Kuhn's book Black Body Theory and the quantum discontinuity 1894–1912 is the demonstration that Planck never intended in 1900-1 to introduce the quantum discontinuity into physics, with his distribution law, as many authoritative historians maintain it. Kuhn proves that Planck was very far from conceiving the necessity of quanta when he followed, more and more closely, Boltzmann's statistical concepts in order to find the distribution law he searched for.We have analyzed the proofs of Kuhn's thesis and we have discovered that the various statistical concepts "inehrited" by Planck have their common foundation in Boltzmann's conception of infinite.Kuhn, who is such a profound historian, could not escape from this fact. Kuhn, however, has not stressed this conceptual continuity either for giving a deeper explanation of the events of the birth of quanta, or for using that as a paradigm and saving, in this way, his work from the accusation that, in the black-body case, he was not able to use his famous interpretative scheme of the history of science.Our conclusion on this matter is that Kuhn behaves like most of the physicists who consider mathematics as a constant of the history, and not a variable that plays a decisive role in the evolution of physics.

Cited authors

Kuhn Thomas S

Planck Max

Boltzmann Ludwig