Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-07T02:39:10.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Huygens versus Fermat: No clear winner

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2003

Paul J. H. Schoemaker
Paul J. H. Schoemaker*
Affiliation:
Department of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
*
schoemak@wharton.upenn.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

How should we assess the appeal of multiple scientific theories when they can all explain a particular empirical phenomenon of interest? We contrast Huygens' and Fermat's explanations of the law of refraction of light and find that neither dominates the other when considering multiple criteria for assessing the overall appeal of a scientific theory. The absence of teleology in Huygens' account is a strong plus compared to Fermat's. But Huygens' wave theory scores less well with respect to other desiderata for a scientific theory. In this case, there does not appear to be a clear winner, nor need there be one.

Type
Author's Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 26 , Issue 6 , December 2003 , pp. 781 - 783
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

References

Bookstein, F. L. (1991) Optimality as a mathematical rhetoric for zeroes. Commentary on Schoemaker (1991). Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14: 216–17. [H-MG]Google Scholar
Feyerabend, P. K. (1981) Problems of empiricism. Philosophical papers, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. [H-MG]Google Scholar
Feynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B. & Sands, M. (1964) The Feynman lectures of physics, vol. 1. Addison-Wesley. [H-MG]Google Scholar
Gamow, G. (1961) The great physicists from Galileo to Einstein. Dover. [H-MG]Google Scholar
Schoemaker, P. J. H. (1991) The quest for optimality: A positive heuristic of science? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14:205–45. [H-MG, rPJHS]Google Scholar
Sears, F., Zemansky, M. & Young, H. (1976) University physics, part II. Addison-Wesley. [H-MG]Google Scholar
Von Weizsaecker, C. F. (1994) Aufbau der physik. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. [H-MG]Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Download undefined(PDF)
PDF 125.6 KB