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University of Chicago Press eBooks

1. Introduction

Slobodan Perović

Published Jan 1, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The opening chapter introduces the book’s primary goal: tracing the structure of Bohr’s approach to physics by drawing on numerous historical studies. It also provides a brief overview of the arguments and analysis, and it sketches a broad array of views on and criticisms of Bohr’s work in the context of the book’s aims and structure. Finally, the chapter explains the nature of the book as the result of a historically informed and philosophically motivated interpretation.

DOI
10.7208/chicago/9780226798479.003.0001

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The first objective of this chapter is to briefly review some of the basic ideas about the structure of matter, in particular the concepts of microscopic physics, in order to recall the knowledge gained in previous physics (and chemistry) courses and make it more precise. Our review will be very concise, and most statements will be made without any proof or detailed discussion. A second objective is to give a brief description of some of the crucial stages in the early development of quantum physics. We shall not follow the strict historical order of this development or present the arguments used at the beginning of the last century by the founding fathers of quantum mechanics; rather, we shall stress the concepts which we shall find useful later on. Our last objective is to give an elementary introduction to some of the basic ideas, like those of a quantum particle or energy level, that will reappear throughout this text. We shall base our review on the Bohr theory, which provides a simple, though far from convincing, explanation of how energy levels are quantized and how the spectrum of the hydrogen atom arises. This chapter should be reread later on, once the basic ideas of quantum mechanics have been made explicit and illustrated by examples. From the practical point of view, it is possible to skip the general considerations of Sections 1.1 and 1.2 at the first reading and begin with Section 1.3, returning to those two sections later on as needed.

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In this monograph I present the basic structure of an interpretation of quantum mechanics. Chapter 1 outlines the central ideas behind the interpretation and illustrates them by means of examples: Subsequent chapters fill in the details of the interpretation. But it is important to begin by explaining what I take an interpretation of quantum mechanics to be, and why any further interpretation needs to be offered. After all, quantum mechanics (in some form) is by now both a foundation for much of contemporary physics and a veteran of more than sixty years of intermittent but sometimes intense reflection on its content and meaning. What more can be, or should be, said about the interpretation of this theory? Many physicists believe that no more needs to be said: that there is basically only one way of understanding quantum mechanics, due to Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, and others, and that the only remaining interpretative task is that of the physics teacher, who seeks to perfect ways of conveying this understanding to new generations of students. Sir Rudolf Peierls, one of the more lucid and distinguished of these physicists, even objects to the use of the familiar term ‘Copenhagen interpretation’ to refer to the way of understanding quantum mechanics due to Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, and others. Because this sounds as if there were several interpretations of quantum mechanics. There is only one. There is only one way in which you can understand quantum mechanics.[…]

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Nov 24, 1989•0 citations
The opening chapter introduces the book’s primary goal: tracing the structure of Bohr’s approach to physics by drawing on numerous historical studies. It also provides a brief overview of the arguments and analysis, and it sketches a broad array of views on and criticisms of Bohr’s work in the context of the book’s aims and structure. Finally, the chapter explains the nature of the book as the result of a historically informed and philosophically motivated interpretation.
The content of the present book is the result of a work developed over a period of more than fifteen years, to which many students and collaborators, as well as renowned philosophers and physicists, have contributed in various aspects, as the references testify. The aim of this work has been to present the MHI in a systematic and organic way, incorporating recent discussions and making explicit its underlying motivations. I have tried to show that the proposal does not address isolated interpretative topics, but provides a broad, articulated, and consistent view to make sense of the quantum world. Throughout the chapters, I have argued in favor of the reasonableness and fruitfulness of the proposal. Of course, the reasons put forward are not directly empirical, but this does not make them any less sound. The main arguments presented in the text can be summarized in the following points: Three more general aspects can be added to these advantages:
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.
This chapter sets the informal stage for the subject matter of the book. Section 1.1 presents in concise form what is typically taught as the basics in quantum physics courses around the world. Section 1.2 gives a short overview of the most important interpretations of these basic rules that were spawned by a century-long lack of clarity of the meaning of quantum mechanics. Section 1.3 gives an account of the deplorable tradition of quantum magic that resulted from this lack of clarity. Section 1.4, the final section, gives a preview of the coherent quantum physics proposed in this book as a solution to the problems of interpreting quantum physics.
The first objective of this chapter is to briefly review some of the basic ideas about the structure of matter, in particular the concepts of microscopic physics, in order to recall the knowledge gained in previous physics (and chemistry) courses and make it more precise. Our review will be very concise, and most statements will be made without any proof or detailed discussion. A second objective is to give a brief description of some of the crucial stages in the early development of quantum physics. We shall not follow the strict historical order of this development or present the arguments used at the beginning of the last century by the founding fathers of quantum mechanics; rather, we shall stress the concepts which we shall find useful later on. Our last objective is to give an elementary introduction to some of the basic ideas, like those of a quantum particle or energy level, that will reappear throughout this text. We shall base our review on the Bohr theory, which provides a simple, though far from convincing, explanation of how energy levels are quantized and how the spectrum of the hydrogen atom arises. This chapter should be reread later on, once the basic ideas of quantum mechanics have been made explicit and illustrated by examples. From the practical point of view, it is possible to skip the general considerations of Sections 1.1 and 1.2 at the first reading and begin with Section 1.3, returning to those two sections later on as needed.
In this monograph I present the basic structure of an interpretation of quantum mechanics. Chapter 1 outlines the central ideas behind the interpretation and illustrates them by means of examples: Subsequent chapters fill in the details of the interpretation. But it is important to begin by explaining what I take an interpretation of quantum mechanics to be, and why any further interpretation needs to be offered. After all, quantum mechanics (in some form) is by now both a foundation for much of contemporary physics and a veteran of more than sixty years of intermittent but sometimes intense reflection on its content and meaning. What more can be, or should be, said about the interpretation of this theory? Many physicists believe that no more needs to be said: that there is basically only one way of understanding quantum mechanics, due to Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, and others, and that the only remaining interpretative task is that of the physics teacher, who seeks to perfect ways of conveying this understanding to new generations of students. Sir Rudolf Peierls, one of the more lucid and distinguished of these physicists, even objects to the use of the familiar term ‘Copenhagen interpretation’ to refer to the way of understanding quantum mechanics due to Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli, and others. Because this sounds as if there were several interpretations of quantum mechanics. There is only one. There is only one way in which you can understand quantum mechanics.[…]