Review: (1) Quantum Philosophy: Understanding and Interpreting Contemporary Science; (2) Understanding Quantum Mechanics

Roland L. Omnes, Daniel M. Greenberger

Matthias Steinmetz

Max Jammer

David Velanes

Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962), French philosopher, followed a period of ruptures, that is, of conceptual and methodological changes in contemporary physics. He is one of several thinkers who presented important reflections for the understanding of contemporary atomistics. This article highlights the main philosophical reflections of Gaston Bachelard about the foundations of quantum mechanics. For that, it uses important concepts of its epistemology without which its ideas become incomprehensible. Thus, this work highlights how this science breaks with traditional scientific and philosophical ideas in the first half of the 20th century by presenting a new object of knowledge, namely, the quantum corpuscles. Furthermore, in order to characterize the philosophy of bachelardian quantum physics, according to the author, the nature of atomic particles stands out, as the scientific activity of this science in the creation of new phenomena is emphasized and its rationalism applied as philosophy is emphasized best suited to the new physics. Finally, it is emphasized in this work that Bachelard's ideas are different from other interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Kefu Zhu

The law of nature is a core concept in the philosophy of science, but there are significant differences among science philosophers regarding the necessity and connotation of this concept. The current understanding of the law of nature can be roughly divided into two categories – the regularity approach and the necessity approach. How to understand the status of quantum states is a core issue in the philosophy of quantum mechanics. The following analysis focuses on the nomological interpretation of the wave function of quantum mechanics proposed by some scholars of the Bohmian school. To defend this interpretation, supporters have put forward various arguments and carefully distinguished different meanings of “nomology”. This is not only related to the several major approaches to understanding the law of nature that already exist in the philosophy of science but also shows a different perspective from the literature. In particular, these new arguments provide a reference for re-examining the formalism of the quantum histories interpretation.

Michele Caponigro