// Workers AI · dad joke modeDo debates weigh heavily? They have a lot of mass arguments.
This is a list of notable scientific debates in the history of science and mathematics.
Biology
[edit]- Nature versus nurture, long-standing debate in biology on human behavior
- 1764–1778 Voltaire vs Needham, between Voltaire and John Needham and others on the validity of preformationism.[1]
- 1830 Cuvier–Geoffroy debate between Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on animal structure.[2]
- 1860 Oxford evolution debate between several scientists on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.[3]
- 1860–1862 Great Hippocampus Question, between Thomas Henry Huxley and Richard Owen on the importance of hippocampus minor.[4]
Chemistry and nanoscience
[edit]- 2001–2003 Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology by K. Eric Drexler and Richard Smalley on the feasibility of molecular assemblers.[5]
Mathematics
[edit]- 1654–1665 problem of points, correspondence between Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat on games and the fair share of a prize pot.[6]
- 1655–1679 Hobbes–Wallis controversy, between Thomas Hobbes and John Wallis on geometry and other topics.[7]
- 1745 Leibniz–Bernoulli correspondence, between Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli on the logarithm of negative numbers.[8]
- 1902–1924 Nekrasov–Markov conflict, between Pavel Nekrasov and Andrey Markov on the relation between the law of large numbers and free will.[9]
- 1903–1912 Poincaré vs. Russell, between Henri Poincaré and Bertrand Russell on logicism and mathematical paradoxes.[10]
- 1907–1928 Brouwer–Hilbert foundational debate or Grundlagenstreit, between L. E. J. Brouwer and David Hilbert on foundations of mathematics.[11]
Physics and astronomy
[edit]- 1715–1716 Leibniz–Clarke correspondence, between Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Samuel Clarke on space being absolute.[12]
- 1857–1901 Kelvin–Stokes aether drag debate, on whether the luminiferous aether was unstable when considered a perfect fluid. Debate between Lord Kelvin and George Stokes.[13][14]
- 1895 Lübeck Debate between Ludwig Boltzmann and Wilhelm Ostwald on the existence of atoms.[15]
- 1920 Great Debate (astronomy) between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis on the scale of spiral nebulae and the Universe.[16]
- 1920 Bad Nauheim Debate, between Philipp Lenard and Albert Einstein on the validity of general relativity.[17] See also Criticism of the theory of relativity.
- 1922 Einstein–Bergson debate between Albert Einstein and philosopher Henri Bergson, on the implications of theory of relativity and the nature of time.[18]
- 1927–1935 Bohr–Einstein debates between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr on interpretations of quantum mechanics.[19]
- 1936–1944 Chandrasekhar–Eddington dispute, between Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Arthur Eddington on the limits of star masses.[20]
- 1949–1964 Big Bang vs. steady-state, dispute between Fred Hoyle supporter of the steady-state model of the universe and George Gamow supporter of the Big Bang.[21]
Philosophy of science
[edit]- 1965 Kuhn–Popper debate between philosophers Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper on scientific research methodology.[22]
- 1990s Science wars, series of debates on the role of natural sciences over social sciences
Science education
[edit]- 1989 Math wars, series of debates on the mathematics education curriculum in the United States
Theology and science
[edit]- 2014 Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate by Bill Nye and Ken Ham on science and creationism and evolution.[23]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Roe, Shirley A. (1985). "Voltaire Versus Needham: Atheism, Materialism, and the Generation of Life". Journal of the History of Ideas. 46 (1): 65–87. doi:10.2307/2709776. ISSN 0022-5037.
- ↑ Appel, Toby A. (1987-03-26). The Cuvier-Geoffrey Debate: French Biology in the Decades before Darwin. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-536480-4.
- ↑ "The Great Debate". oumnh.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
- ↑ "From the Archives: 'I'll let him know his place in nature'". The Linnean Society. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
- ↑ Bueno, Otávio (2006), "The drexler-smalley debate on nanotechnology: incommensurability at work?", Nanotechnology Challenges, WORLD SCIENTIFIC, pp. 29–48, doi:10.1142/9789812773975_0003, ISBN 978-981-256-729-1, retrieved 2025-01-31
- ↑ "History of Probability | Research Starters | EBSCO Research". EBSCO. Retrieved 2025-09-02.
- ↑ Jesseph, Douglas (2018-10-10). "Geometry, religion and politics: context and consequences of the Hobbes–Wallis dispute". Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science. 72 (4): 469–486. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2018.0026.
- ↑ Goldstine, H. H. (2012-12-06). A History of Numerical Analysis from the 16th through the 19th Century. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4684-9472-3.
- ↑ "First Links in the Markov Chain". American Scientist. 2017-02-06. Retrieved 2025-08-18.
- ↑ Hellman, Hal (2010-12-17). Great Feuds in Mathematics: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever. Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-118-04011-9.
- ↑ Carl, J. Posy (1998). "Brouwer versus Hilbert: 1907–1928". Science in Context. 11 (2): 291–325. doi:10.1017/S0269889700003021. ISSN 1474-0664.
- ↑ "20th WCP: Leibniz's Theory of Space in the Correspondence with Clarke and the Existence of Vacuums". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
- ↑ Darrigol, Olivier (2005). Worlds of flow : a history of hydrodynamics from the Bernoullis to Prandtl. Internet Archive. Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-856843-8.
- ↑ Darrigol, Olivier (2002). "Stability and instability in nineteenth-century fluid mechanics". Revue d'histoire des mathématiques. 8 (1): 5–65. ISSN 1777-568X.
- ↑ Lindley, David (2015-12-19). Boltzmanns Atom: The Great Debate That Launched A Revolution In Physics. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-4267-3.
- ↑ "This Month in Physics History". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
- ↑ Earman, John; Janssen, Michel; Norton, John D. (1993-12-01). The Attraction of Gravitation: New Studies in the History of General Relativity. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-0-8176-3624-1.
- ↑ Canales, Jimena (2015-06-09). The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-6577-2.
- ↑ Ball, Phillip (2024-04-10). "Entangled entities: Bohr, Einstein and the battle over quantum fundamentals". Physics World. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
- ↑ "Chandrasekhar Eddington". Maths History. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
- ↑ Hiscott, Laura (2021-12-22). "Two scientists' debate over whether the universe had a beginning – and how the elements were created". Physics World. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
- ↑ Fuller, Steve (2006). Kuhn Vs Popper: The Struggle for the Soul of Science. Icon Books. ISBN 978-1-84046-722-2.
- ↑ Chappell, Bill (2014-02-06). "Who 'Won' The Creation Vs. Evolution Debate?". NPR. Retrieved 2025-01-31.