Questionable Questions in Analysis and Synthesis

In “Analysis and Synthesis IV: Limits and Supplements” (Physics Today, January 2004, page 10 ), Frank Wilczek describes the question “Why is the Solar System as it is?” as “discredited.” But to do so is to discredit the many fields of physics—including geophysics and planetology—that dare to address phenomena that are not “universal” or “clean.” Although our own solar system has a history that is perhaps accidental and idiosyncratic, it is nonetheless the “limited slice of the world” in which all of us live. A deeper understanding of the system’s admittedly messy history is essential if we are to address intelligently such issues as global change and resource management. And on a philosophical level, knowing the particular happenstances of our history is as important to our humanity as knowing the story of one’s own family or culture. To study that deep history is no less creditable or scientific than to seek transcendent explanations for worlds to which we have no access.

There are so many messy, intellectually challenging questions to which the legions of brilliant, un- and underemployed physicists might fruitfully turn their thoughts. I am saddened to see such lines of inquiry devalued.