Students learn Newton’s Laws as arbitrary equations that seem to work to describe physical systems. An intelligent person would ask why. Why do these equations work? What is the reasoning behind them?

 

Using some advanced mathematics, usually taught only in graduate school, we can give an answer to the question why. We can reformulate Newton’s laws using a mathematical concept called Hamilton’s Principle. We define a quantity called the Lagrangian, and state that the object is to minimize the Lagrangian. This is called the Least Action Principle. An object will move so that the action is a minimum.

 

Noether proved that laws of nature, such as conservation of momentum that leads to Newton’s Laws, can be derived from the least action principle.

 

One way of looking at this is to say that will happen depends upon a requirement of the future, that the action be minimized. Instead of saying, as Newton said, that the past determines the future, we can say the future will be what the future requires. The object will sort of try out different paths, and take the path that minimizes the action! This is a profoundly different way of looking at science. I hope people investigate this idea more deeply. It may help to resolve current problems in science.

 

People also try to maximize something, and this determines their behavior. They want to maximize their happiness, wealth, or whatever.

 

Ethics is concerned with purposes. Since science is purposeful (in the sense of the Least Action Principle), we may be able to say that ethics blends in with science. It may not be true to say that science is merely objective and immoral.