O.K., no hint for yesterday (I was offline doing what a new father has to do...)
Let's sumarise:
The question:
Rarely nowadays does philosophy inform science. But there is one significant finding in 20th century astronomy that was "dragged into the open", if you will, by the application of philosophy.
Which finding is it and who were the persons invlolved?
The hints so far:
- I am thinking of the application of philosphy leading directly to the setup of a specific experiment resulting in a single experimental result conforming to the philosphical idea. Very specific.
- I should [...] state explicitly that the interpretation of GR or quantum theory per se are not what I have in mind.
- The result has to do with human existence.
- The finding involves the numbers 5, 6 and 7.
- The man who had the idea can be considered a famous astronomer.
- With my result, we are quite within the mainstream although (next daily hint)
- The person who initiated the experiment from a philosophical point of view is not usually associated with "mainstream" today.
The hint for today:
The unphilosophically inclined might say, although I wouldn' share their opinion, that the heuristic principle this astronomer applied was not philosphy at all but simply some common sense and a lot of creative thinking. As a collaborator wrote (no use googling this one; it's a retranslation from the German): "With this discovery, a purely +++physical consideration had, for the first time, directly influenced ***physics. That was tantamount to a sensation. The imagination of X had founded +++***physics.
X is the guy who had the idea
+++ and *** stand for different disciplines of physics. The philosphy I have in mind is hidden in the +++physics.
Now how is that
not a dead giveaway.