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Weimar culture and quantum mechanics

Robert Golub, S. K. Lamoreaux

Published Feb 28, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Most, but not all, of the fundamental work on quantum mechanics took place during the turbulent times of the Weimar republic, which was formed in Germany after the abdication of the Kaiser at the end of WWI. While many physicists are appalled at the implication that physical theories might, even to a limited extent, be influenced by their cultural milieu, we feel an overview of the latter might help in an overall understanding of the theory. We will see that such views were shared, to some extent, by Schrödinger. After a brief overview of the contemporary economic and cultural situation and the reactions of several of the originators of quantum theory, we pass on to Forman’s thesis regarding the influence of Weimar culture and quantum mechanics. This thesis has spurred an enormous debate, of which we give a short description.

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780198822189.003.0016

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Abstract Most, but not all, of the fundamental work on quantum mechanics took place during the turbulent times of the Weimar republic, which was formed in Germany after the abdication of the Kaiser at the end of WWI. While many physicists are appalled at the implication that physical theories might, even to a limited extent, be influenced by their cultural milieu, we feel an overview of the latter might help in an overall understanding of the theory. We will see that such views were shared, to some extent, by Schrödinger. After a brief overview of the contemporary economic and cultural situation and the reactions of several of the originators of quantum theory, we pass on to Forman’s thesis regarding the influence of Weimar culture and quantum mechanics. This thesis has spurred an enormous debate, of which we give a short description.
Abstract Following the path by which humanity learned quantum mechanics can lead to an improved understanding of the theory and the origins of its perceived limitations. Our goal is to retrace the development by investigating primary sources, including original published papers and letters, with attention to their timing and influence. Quantum mechanics began in 1900 with the introduction of Planck’s constant, which lead to the “old” quantum theory and Bohr’s model of the atom. With the introduction of matter waves in 1924, a second more intense period began. By 1928 the complete fundamental structure of quantum mechanics was established with the introduction of the Schrödinger equation, the proof of its equivalence to Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics, and the introduction of the relativistic Dirac equation. The theory retains the same essential form today, fueling the technological revolution that began in the last century. We culminate with an introduction to quantum information and computing. This completely new physical scientific paradigm was developed largely in Germany during a period of enormous social, economic, and political upheaval—in a hostile intellectual environment—that parallels the overturning of classical physics. It is striking that all the problems debated today were immediately recognized by the founders of the theory and instructive to see how they dealt with the various issues. We emphasize the centrality of the often neglected second quantization form of the theory for questions of interpretation and give a detailed examination of von Neumann’s widely misunderstood hidden variable theorem.
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental theory of atomic and subatomic physics. Overwhelmingly, however, the creation of quantum mechanics was an enterprise of Germans and Austrians. Consequently, as a product of Germany it may appropriately be considered in relation to German culture. The "quantum mechanical variables" which Werner Heisenberg conceived, and which Max Born recognized as matrices, were probabilities of atomic transitions, or algebraic combinations and derivatives of such probabilities more precisely, probability amplitudes. The factors operating on the originators of quantum mechanics so as effectively to prescribe their representation of their theory as anschaulich were largely those presents in the discussion of Kausalitat. As regards Anschaulichkeit, the true character of the theory ran counter to the Zeitgeist, rather than, as with causality, offering physicists an opportunity to sail with the intellectual currents. Where Kausalitat was the pejorative code word in the antiintellectualist "philosophy of life," Anschauung, Anschaulichkeit, etc. were among the principal shibboleths of this Lebensphilosophie.
In The Conceptual Development of Quantum Physics, Max Jammer observes that “certain philosophical ideas of the late nineteenth century not only prepared the intellectual climate for, but contributed decisively to, the formation of the new conceptions of the modern quantum theory”—specifically, “contingentism, existentialism, pragmatism, and logical empiricism,” which, argues Jammer “united in rejecting causality though on different grounds” and “prepared, so to speak, the philosophical background for modern quantum mechanics.” Regarding this same rejection of causality in physics in Weimar Germany—a rejection central to the quantum interpretation—Paul Forman argues that “substantive problems in atomic physics played only a secondary role in the genesis of this acausal persuasion, [and] that the most important factor was the social-intellectual pressure exerted upon the physicists as members of the German academic community.” Along these same lines, in an interview with Einstein in 1932, James Gardner Murphy said, “scientists live in the world just like other people…. They cannot escape the influence of the milieu in which they live. And that milieu at the present time is characterized largely by a struggle to get rid of the causal chain in which the world has entangled itself.” In all of these cases, the development of quantum physics is attributed to the zeitgeist of the time, with the critics adopting a “hypodermic” model wherein intellectual currents have a direct influence on scientific discovery.