What does the Higgs bosson say to us?

[Delenda Carthago]

If we say that it is finnaly found, how does this affect our theories of the world and science, and hence, politics? A friend of mine who studies math, told me that this might cancel dialectic materialism. Could this be true? I am totaly ignorant on physics, can someone help?

[Q]

If we say that it is finnaly found, how does this affect our theories of the world and science, and hence, politics?
The Higgs boson is a particle that is predicted by the currently held Standard Model. If not found, it would shatter this model to pieces so fundamentally that we'd seriously need to rethink how the universe works.


A friend of mine who studies math, told me that this might cancel dialectic materialism. Could this be true? I am totaly ignorant on physics, can someone help?

I don't see how. Dialectics is a method of analysis. In and by itself it makes no predictions in how the universe works (despite what Alan Woods may think).

[Delenda Carthago]

So its actually the opposite, if not found we have to rethink our everything, from basic physics to politics. I see.

[Q]

So its actually the opposite, if not found we have to rethink our everything, from basic physics to politics. I see.

I don't really see how politics is linked to the Higgs boson.

[Delenda Carthago]

I don't really see how politics is linked to the Higgs boson.
Physics and politics are connected for socialism since the days of Marx at least dude!:)

[ВАЛТЕР]

Politics has nothing to do with subatomic particles. If we find or do not find it, it changes nothing. The ruling class will still be there, the majority of people will be exploited, imperialist wars will be waged. The class struggle continues, with or without the Higgs boson.

[Delenda Carthago]

Politics has nothing to do with subatomic particles. If we find or do not find it, it changes nothing. The ruling class will still be there, the majority of people will be exploited, imperialist wars will be waged. The class struggle continues, with or without the Higgs boson.
Dialectic materialism is based on a specific scientific analysis on everything. From nature to society. If that paradigm would collapse, what would that say for our thinking tools?

[Lynx]

The Standard Model, and the Status Quo, are safe for now.

[Q]

Dialectic materialism is based on a specific scientific analysis on everything. From nature to society. If that paradigm would collapse, what would that say for our thinking tools?

Dialectics indeed tries to get an overview of a whole system. However, it is obviously only about relevant factors that can be considered in such a system for further analysis, to avoid complication and general nonsense.

I.e. the scientific method always works with models that are an approximation of reality.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Dialectic materialism is based on a specific scientific analysis on everything. From nature to society. If that paradigm would collapse, what would that say for our thinking tools?

I don't know much about this subject other than the media likes to call this particle the "God particle" which maybe some people then conclude that a "theory of everything" in physics would explain everything else and negate any other worldviews. Would you mind explaining how this possible discovery would impact "thinking tools" specifically?

As far as I can tell from little I have read about, it seems that any "reassessment" of other physics theories, if this one is reasonably held-up, wouldn't really have direct consequences for politics or political theory. As an analogy it might have an impact like if some new "missing link" was discovered in the fossil record that throws all previous assumptions about when certain human-like traits developed in various Homo- groups aside. It's new information that has to be accounted for and existing ideas might have to change or thrown out, but it wouldn't negate the theory of evolution just change our understanding of how the process works. And if something like spoken communication or tool-making was discovered to have happened much earlier than our current fossile records indicate, it still wouldn't have any direct impact on the facts of our class society today and the existence of exploitation and so on.

[Book O'Dead]

If we say that it is finnaly found, how does this affect our theories of the world and science, and hence, politics? A friend of mine who studies math, told me that this might cancel dialectic materialism. Could this be true? I am totaly ignorant on physics, can someone help?

Impossible. The Higgs boson is incapable of cancelling out a deep-rooted fantasy.

[Book O'Dead]

Wouldn't the existence of the Higgs boson allow us to build models of the universe that resemble strings at the sub-atomic ?

[Comrade Trollface]

As I understand it, the Higgs boson imbues matter with mass. So it follows that if it hadn't been found, all the matter in the universe would have lost its mass.
And from what I have gathered from the posts here, such an event would only have the most negligible impact on your political theories.:p

[Luís Henrique]

As I understand it, the Higgs boson imbues matter with mass. So it follows that if it hadn't been found, all the matter in the universe would have lost its mass.

Rather, if it was proved that it could not be found, we would have to think of another way in which matter is "imbued" with mass.

I don't think the contradictory nature of capitalist society relies on the way matter acquires its mass.

Luís Henrique

[Ocean Seal]

If we say that it is finnaly found, how does this affect our theories of the world and science, and hence, politics? A friend of mine who studies math, told me that this might cancel dialectic materialism. Could this be true? I am totaly ignorant on physics, can someone help?
Please don't do this. Substantiating dialectical materialism with hard science is the wrong path to take. The dialectic is merely a tool for understanding historical materialism. Discussing the dialectics of nature is fine, but relating that back to materialism is always a stretch and frankly quite irrelevant.

[Comrade Trollface]

I've actually found some bible passages that justify dialectic materialism.