Zasada przyczynowości w kontekście eksperymentalnych badań ruchów Browna

Abstract

The basic condition underlying scientifc research is the frm belief in the causal inevitability of natural phenomena according to the causality principle. I assert that scientifc research, especially the experimental research of the Brownian motion, can be considered to be primarily the application of the principle of causality. In search for the causes of Brownian motion, the Causality Principle was adopted with the experimental method of research too. In Mario Bunge’s formulation of the principle of causality the effect is accompanied in a permanent and necessary way by the cause insomuch as it is generated by the cause. However, the generation of the effect occurs by way of the transfer of energy and momentum. It is because of the kinetic energy of liquid molecules that the Brownian particles perform a motion observed under a microscope. In the article, I show how experimental researches on the Brownian motion demonstrate that motion is generated by thermal fuctuations of molecules and how these researches adopted the physicalistic concept of causal relation.