P h i l o s o p h y o f S c i e n c e C o l l o q u i u m, K a r l H a l l

P h i l o s o p h y o f S c i e n c e C o l l o q u i u m Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest Room 6.54 (6th floor) Monday 4:00 PM Pázmány P. sétány 1/A Budapest, Hungary Phone/Fax: (36-1) 372 2924 PROGRAM 29 September 4:00 PM 6th floor 6.54 K a r l H a l l Department of History Central European University, Budapest Socialist Realist Physics: Lev Landau's Principled Phenomenology "The electron does not tolerate bureaucratism," senior Soviet physicists assured their technocratic patrons during Stalin's headlong industrialization campaign in the late 1920s. Research programs oriented toward Socialist Construction placed Soviet theoretical physicists in particular on the defensive. The young theorist Lev Landau deftly steered between engineering imperatives and the longing for a unifying mathematical lever to move the world that he blithely dismissed as "Einsteinkrankheit." His peculiar brand of "Socialist Realist" physics, forged in the crucible of Stalinist culture, eventually enabled him to solve the strangest physics problem of his day: superfluidity in helium. ___________________________________ The 60-minute lecture is followed by a 10-minute break. Then we hold a 30-60-minute discussion. The participants may comment on the talks and are encouraged to initiate discussion through the Internet. The comments should be written in the language of the presentation. The organizer of the seminar: Miklós Rédei (email: redei(a)hps.elte.hu) -- L a s z l o E. S z a b o NIAS, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences phone:(31)70 512 2700 fax:(31)70 511 7162 http://www.nias.knaw.nl on leave from Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Department of History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University, Budapest http://hps.elte.hu/leszabo