Physicism

At the Summer 2011 meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers I re-introduced the word 'physicism' to raise the question whether we should have some sort of social bent across physics education, pointing to the analogous 'environmentalism' common among those studying and teaching environmental science. See A broad look at the energy curriculum.

About environmentalism

I have overgeneralized environmental scientists as all being environmentalists, including in their teaching. There are strands of environmental science pedagogy that eschew activism, rather embracing appreciation and scientific knowledge for its own sake. Workers in these strands might be called 'naturalists' rather than environmentalists.

Perhaps that subtlety could be informative to our consideration of physicism. There might be one subset of physicists who espouse physicism living peacefully with another subset who don't care for activism in their field, both sharing an appreciation for the science itself.

The strong interplay between political environmentalism and environmental science shapes the study of environmental science, and gives the science baggage that sometimes causes selection, exaggeration, or simplification of found associations between political action and environmental metrics. See Tim Forsyth's 2003 book Critical Political Ecology: the politics of environmental science, chapter 5.

Environmentalism may be considered a movement to protect nature from degradation.

Scientism

That the world should be seen through rational lenses, and that the world is mechanistic, isn't a fruitful way to look at the pursuit of physics. If it isn't appropriate for the study of physicists, it probably isn't appropriate for the pedagogy of physics.

So what might physicism be?

1800s physicism

See #Genitors of physicism.

• Laws govern the universe
• There is unity between, simplicity in those laws.

The crises of early modern physics, culminating in general relativity and quantum mechanics, so befuddling to so many professors of classical physics, erased the simplicity and unity argument. The refined argument for physics remained, though, that the world could be understood, but now only by the priesthood. Did this anti-pedagogical turn send physicism from the official curriculum into hiding?

Has it a gendered bent?

See Evelyn Fox Keller's history of enlightenment natural philosophy:“Baconian Science: A Hermaphroditic Birth,” Philosophical Forum, 1980, 12:299 –308.

A social bent

What are the social goals involved in the pursuit of physics?

A philosophy compatible with the practice

A philosophy compatible with the practice of physics could mean one that calls on society to support physics. It could be a meritocracy that pushes out weaklings and amplifies successes. It could be either supporting physicists from a distance because they seem like they know what they're doing, or, conversely, understanding the power of what they're doing so supporting them.

A function in society

If environmentalism may be considered a movement to protect nature from degradation, is there a parallel for physicism? I can't see there being a physicism to protect anything from anything, but I know energy physicists who want to provide energy resources for the use of humanity. So perhaps physicism could be a movement to harness physical interactions for human use?

What is the de facto social bent of physics, if it has one?

The philosophy of physics follows certain well-worn channels in the indoctrination of students. Evidence includes the tautology "you cannot break the laws of physics" and the widespread concept that physics "is the base" of chemistry, which in turn is the base of biology, which is in turn the base of all things human.

One tacit assumption common in physics education for non-physicists and pre-specialists, to much greater degree than in other fields, is that there is a set of knowledge and skills, the canon, which must be visited before the gates to the rest of physics can be opened. This leads to an atmosphere of fraternity, including the selectivity and shaming associated with exclusive clubs. So, de facto physicism includes a sense of privileged expertise.

See How is physicism explained in physics textbooks?

References Dear, PEter. The Intelligibility of Nature. Kaiser, David. How the Hippies Saved Physics.