Reality in Heisenberg’s Philosophy

Richard J. C. M. Starmans

Bernard d’Espagnat

Hossien Hossieni, Jabar Fatah, Said Kaki +1 more

In this study, we explain why Hawking thinks in his book (The Grand Design) that philosophy is dead. For this purpose, in the second and third sections we first introduce in brief quantum mechanics, Heisenberg uncertainty, Bohr Complementary and path integral approach to quantum mechanics and explain Young Experiment as heart of quantum mechanics and why no one can predicate future a microscopic system definitely. In fourth section, we explain Kant philosophy about causality and Kant understanding for phenomena and things itself. We discuss towards the end of this work the Copenhagen interpretation, philosophy and Kantian concepts which cannot be used to interpret reality of phenomena on atomic level and quantum mechanics. We then introduce the alternative of philosophy in modern physics, i.e., mathematics.

Kristian Camilleri

In this paper, I argue that Heisenberg's mature philosophy of quantum mechanics must be understood in the context of his epistemological project to reinterpret and redefine Kant's notion of the a priori. After discussions with Weizsäcker and Hermann in Leipzig in the 1930s, Heisenberg attempted to ground his interpretation of quantum mechanics on what might be termed a ‘practical’ transformation of Kantian philosophy. Taking as his starting point, Bohr's doctrine of the indispensability of classical concepts, Heisenberg argued that concepts such as space, time and causality can be regarded as ‘practically a priori’, in so far as they remain the conditions for the possibility of experience and even of ‘objective reality’, though they are not universal and necessary in a strictly Kantian sense. We cannot avoid using classical concepts in the description of experiments in quantum theory, despite the fact that there are limits to their applicability. Such concepts are, for Heisenberg, historically contingent, yet indispensable in our time, because we have no other language through which we can describe and conceive of the interaction between ‘object’ and ‘measuring device’.

Leonard Eisenbud

GREGORY LEBAUBE

AbstractQuantum physics has overturned the classical view of the world by introducing probability, indeterminacy and the participation of the observer. It is not merely a scientific revolution, it reshapes causality, reality and knowledge, opening the way to an epistemology of relation. From Bohr to Rovelli, from Heisenberg to Morin, contemporary thought recognizes that reality no longer appears as an independent structure, but as a network of interactions. This relational conception of the world crosses the boundary between science and philosophy and invites us to rethink human responsibility in the production of knowledge. Knowledge thus becomes an act of co-creation, articulating scientific rigor, reflexivity and awareness of interconnectedness : a new humanism grounded in complexity and relation. Keywordsquantum mechanics, indeterminacy, causality, reality, observer, relation, epistemology, complexity, complementarity, entanglement, Bohr, Heisenberg, Rovelli, Morin, humanism, responsibility, knowledge, interaction, philosophy of science, ethics of knowledge