In thermodynamics, Robert John Deltete (1946-), oft-cited as "R.J. Deltete", is an American philosopher and energetics historian noted for his 1983 PhD dissertation The Energetics Controversy in the Late 19th Century Germany: Helmholtz, Ostwald, and Their Critics, on the subject of the famous 1895 "energetics debate", which according to American physical economics historian Philip Mirowski, is said to be the best source in English on the energetics movement, which focuses particularly on the works of Georg Helm, Willard Gibbs, Wilhelm Ostwald, and Ernst Mach, among others. [1]
Education
Deltete completed his BA in philosophy and history (1969), with a minor in physics, at Seattle University, Washington, and both his MA (1974), in philosophy, and PhD (1983) at Yale University, with his 1,766-page two-volume dissertation The Energetics Controversy in the Late 19th Century Germany: Helmholtz, Ostwald, and Their Critics (conferred in 1984), under Ruth B. Marcus and and noted American physics historian Martin Klein.
From 1978 to present, Deltete has been a professor of philosophy at Seattle University, where he specializes in the history and philosophy of science, in cosmology, and in relations between science and Christian theology. Deltete has taught courses in philosophy of the person, ethics, logic, philosophy of science and technology, and analytic philosophy.
Religion
Deltete has an interest in the overlap of religion, science, philosophy, and god, as evidenced by his teaching work and that he has penned a number of review articles on books scientists who write on both thermodynamics and religion, including: Stephen Hawking’s 1988 A Brief History of Time (1983 review), Helge Kragh’s 2008 Entropic Creation (2010 review), among others. [2]
References
1. (a) Deltete, Robert John. (1993). The Energetics Controversy in the Late 19th Century Germany: Helmholtz, Ostwald, and Their Critics, Volume 1. PhD thesis. Yale University.
(b) Deltete, Robert John. (1983). The Energetics Controversy in the Late 19th Century Germany: Helmholtz, Ostwald, and Their Critics, Volume 2. PhD thesis. Yale University.
(c) Mirowski, Philip. (1989). More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature’s Economics (pgs. 55, 405). Cambridge University Press.
2. (a) Deltete, Robert J. (1983). “Hawking on God and Creation” (abs), Zygon, 28(4): 485-506.
(b) Deltete, Robert J. (2010). “Entropic Creation: Religious Contexts of Thermodynamics and Cosmology. By Helge S. Kragh.” Zygon 45 (1):281-282.
Further reading
● Deltete, Robert J. (1995). “Gibbs and the Energeticists”, in: No Truth Except in the Details: Essays in Honor of Martin J. Klein (pgs. 135-69). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
● Deltete, Robert. (1999). “Helm and Boltzmann: Energetics and the Lübeck Naturforscherversammlung” (abs), Synthese, 119(1-2): 45-68.
● Helm, Georg F. and Deltete, Robert J. (2000). The Historical Development of Energetics (pg. 153-60). Kluwer Academic Press.
● Deltete, Robert J. (2005). “Die Lehre von der Energie: Georg Helm’s Energetic Manifesto”. Centaurus, Vol. 47, Issue 2, pgs. 140-62.
● Deltete, Robert J. (2007). “Wilhelm Ostwald’s Energetics 1: Origins and Motivations” (abs), Foundations of Chemistry, 9(1):3-56.
● Deltete, Robert J. (2007). “Wilhelm Ostwald’s Energetics 2: Energetic Theory and Application, Part I” (abs), Foundations of Chemistry, 9(3):256-316
● Deltete, Robert J. (2008). “Wilhelm Ostwald’s Energetics 3: Energetic Theory and Application, Part II” (abs), Foundations of Chemistry, 10(#):187-221.
● Deltete, Robert J. (2010). “Thermodynamics in Wilhelm Ostwald’s Physical Chemistry” (abs), Philosophy of Science, 77(5):888-899.
● Deltete, Robert J. (2011). “Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903)”, in: Philosophy of Chemistry (pgs. 89-95, etc.), eds. Dov M. Gabbay, Paul Thagard, John Woods, Robin Findlay Hendry, Andrea Woody, Paul Needham. Elsevier.
● Deltete, Robert J. (2012). “Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932)”, in: Philosophy of Chemistry (editors: Andrea Woody, Robin Hendry, Paul Needham) (pgs. 101-). Elsevier.
External links
● Deltete, Robert John – WorldCat Identities.
● Robert J. Deltete (Robert J.) – PhilPapers.org.
● Robert Deltete (faculty) – Seattle University.
