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Cambridge University Press eBooks

The Map versus the Territory

Ruth E. Kastner

Published Apr 22, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of the development of quantum theory, with a critical focus on the antirealist tradition inaugurated by Niels Bohr. The distinction between “principle theories” and “constructive theories” is discussed, and it is noted that quantum mechanics is a “principle theory.” It is argued that quantum theory is amenable to a fully realist interpretation provided we let go of the demand that reality be classically picturable.

DOI
10.1017/9781108907538.003

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This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of the development of quantum theory, with a critical focus on the antirealist tradition inaugurated by Niels Bohr. The distinction between “principle theories” and “constructive theories” is discussed, and it is noted that quantum mechanics is a “principle theory.” It is argued that quantum theory is amenable to a fully realist interpretation provided we let go of the demand that reality be classically picturable.
This book gives a detailed study of the development and the interpretation given to Niels Bohr's Principle of Correspondence. It also describes the role that this principle played in guiding Bohr's research over the critical period from 1920 to 1927. Quantum mechanics, developed in the 1920s and 1930s by Bohr, Heisenberg, Born, Schrödinger and Dirac, represents one of the most profound turning points in science. This theory required a wholly new kind of physics in which many of the principles, concepts and models representing reality, that had formed the basis of classical physics since Galileo and Newton, had to be abandoned. This book re-examines the birth of quantum mechanics, in particular examining the development of crucial and original insights of Niels Bohr.
It is argued that the traditional "realist" methodology of physics, according to which human concepts, laws and theories can grasp the essence of reality, is incompatible with the most fruitful interpretation of quantum formalism. The proof rests on the violation by quantum mechanics of the foundational principles of that methodology. An alternative methodology, in which the construction of sciences finishes at the level of human experience, as standard quantum theory strongly suggests, is then conjectured.
This article discusses the history of quantum physics, beginning with an analysis of the process through which a community of quantum theorists and experimentalists came into being. In particular, it traces the roots and fruits of Max Planck’s papers in irreversible processes in nature. It proceeds by exploring the origin and subsequent development of Niels Bohr’s so-called ‘planetary model’ of the atom, focusing on the extension of the model by Arnold Sommerfeld and members of his school as well to Bohr’s use of his principles of correspondence and adiabatic invariance. It also considers the post-war years, as the problems of atomic spectroscopy sparked the development of new methodological approaches to quantum theory. Finally, it offers a history of the two distinct new forms of quantum mechanics put forward in the mid-1920s: Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan’s matrix mechanics, and Erwin Schrödinger’s wave mechanics.
This is a brief review of the history and development of quantum theories. Starting from the experimental findings and theoretical results which marked the crisis of the classical framework, I overview the rise of axiomatic quantum mechanics through matrix and wave mechanics. I discuss conceptual problems such as the measurement problem that led scientific realists to explore other, more satisfactory, quantum theories, as well as Bell’s theorem and quantum nonlocality, concluding with a short review of relativistic theories.
I: Hoffding as Mentor.- I.- 1. Harald Hoffding, His Life and Thought.- 2. Hoffding and Bohr Senior.- II.- 1. The Ekliptika Circle.- 2. Bohr and William James.- 3. Bohr and Kierkegaard.- 4. The Student Bohr on Formal Logic.- III.- 1. The Friendship.- 2. The Years Around 1927.- 3. Hoffding on Complementarity.- IV.- 1. Hoffding's Theory of Knowledge.- 2. Totality as a Category.- 3. Hoffding's Philosophy of Mind and Psychology of Free Will.- 4. Hoffding on Biology.- 5. Analogy and Scientific Progress.- II: Bohr and the Atomic Description of Nature.- V.- 1. The Principle of Correspondence.- 2. The Search for an Interpretation.- VI.- 1. Complementarity.- 2. Quantum Mechanics and Psychology.- 3. Bohr on Biology.- VII.- 1. The Objectivity of Knowledge.- 2. The EPR Discussion.- 3. The Conditions for Description.- VIII.- 1. Bohr and Realism.- 2. Hoffding on Reality.- 3. Objective Anti-Realism.- Epilogue: The Legacy.- Notes.
Quantum theory has passed through three distinct stages during its evolution. The first is generally referred to as ‘old quantum theory’. During a period roughly between 1900 and 1925 Planck, Bohr and Einstein, among others, grappled with various experimental and theoretical crises by patching up classical mechanics with some new quantum ideas applied as band-aids. This is not to disparage the work; it was vitally important, and you can only do what is possible at the time. The quantum world is very different to the picture painted by classical physics. That being the case and given the extreme nature of some of these differences, we might question the wisdom of accepting the quantum view. Scientists can be quite disparaging about philosophy, sometimes while in the process of espousing, quite stridently, a philosophical position of their own. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.