From Verifiability Theories to Confined Quarks: History of Physics Informing Philosophy of Science Pedagogy

We all invoke the history of physics when teaching physics courses.  The history of physics also offers a powerful asset when teaching courses in philosophy.  Given our unit’s recent name change from Forum on the History of Physics to Forum on the History and Philosophy of Physics, here I celebrate this expansion by sharing “sound bites” from an undergraduate Philosophy of Science course that a philosophy professor* and I have team-taught six times.  As the resident physicist on the teaching team, my role quickly evolved into illustrating the philosophy of science issue of the day by relating events and developments from the history of physics.  Although my physics history examples will be familiar to this session’s audience, I offer this presentation as evidence that, when it comes to physics, history and philosophy go together. [*with gratitude to Dr. Brint Montgomery]