Materia: observaţii epistemologice cu prilejul aniversării modelului atomului al lui Rutherford (II)

ABSTRACT. The end of this paper – of both the first and second part – is to present arguments to the thesis that, on the first hand, the ontological aim of the philosophical theories was and is taken over by the scientific theories and, on the second hand, that the ontological presuppositions are at the same time epistemological, or depend on the epistemological frame of a certain historical thinking.

In this final part, the materialist character of the modern science is sketched. The “inquiry” of matter in mechanics has emphasised the movement of bodies. Chemistry worked with substances and arrived to the thesis of particles, of molecules and atoms. The combined research of chemistry and physics has further developed the theory of the composition of “matter”: the subatomic particles, the elementary constituents of matter and energy. Because of the specific of quantum physics, different theories have been constructed, from the spiritualist ones to that of the “disappearance of matter” or to that of the funda‑mental continuity of matter.

This paper has two parts. The first deals with the modern scientific theory and atomism: the constitution of atomism and the evolution from the “plum pudding” model of atom to the planetary model of Rutherford and its surpassing by the discoveries of sub‑atomic particles, Einstein’s theory of equivalence between matter and energy and the theory of wave particle duality. The second develops and interprets some aspects of Einstein’s theory of equivalence between matter and energy and the theory of particle wave duality: the logical discoveries of the concept of anti‑matter, the ideas of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, the expansion of the Standard Model of elementary particles, the spring of the understanding of matter, as well as of the innovations concerning the material foundations of the human existence (as nanotechnology). The history of the nuclear interactions, thus of particles, is not univocal, but rather localised. On this basis theories of quantum gravity and cosmology were developed, as well as a holistic approach of “every‑ thing” (i.e. “grand unification theory”). The theory of wholeness illustrates the challenge of the epistemology of the continuous toward the epistemology of discontinuities. Science does not remain at its or philosophical intuitions, it demonstrates, experimenting and calculating. The atom’s planetary model of Rutherford was preceded and followed by other models, finer insofar as new particles were discovered. The specific of particles is given by their relationships and forces, they are these relationships and forces; and the unity particle‑wave and the historical character of particles demonstrate both the indivisibility of quantum, action and energy, and the fact that only the whole set of physical phenomena explains matter as independent reality. What is important is that the quantum basis of chemical bindings and the unity particle‑wave do not allow a religious explanation of the physical world. At the same time, the description of stable atoms not in the classical manner of structures in space and time but as processes and functions is consonant with the philosophical ideas of harmony, continuity and holism. Indeed, if on the one hand quantum physics arrives to develop as a philosophy of reality/matter/existence, on the other hand it needs philosophy: because philosophy is holist while science is not yet. KEYWORDS: matter, energy, quantum physics, modern scientific theory, atomism, nanotechnology, philosophy of physics, holism.