Physicists on physics

Abstract

This paper offers an ethnographic account of the community of academic physicists. It seeks, on the basis of interviews with key informants, to construct a picture of what physics is like as a discipline; what features of its epistemology serve to differentiate it from other disciplines; and what characterises the disciplinary community itself, in terms of its career structure, value-system and preferred modes of communication. In conclusion, an attempt is made to identify the physicist's world-view.