Philosophy of Physics and Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Grete Hermann, Dirk Lumma

M. L. Dalla Chiara, P. A. Metelli

Daniele Oriti

We scan Paul K. Feyerabend's work in philosophy of physics and of science more generally for insights that could be useful for the contemporary debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics. We take as our starting point what Feyerabend has actually written about quantum mechanics, but we extend our analysis to his general views on realism, objectivity, pluralism, and the relation between physics and philosophy, finding that these more general views could in fact offer many interesting insights for physicists and philosophers working on quantum foundations.

Kenneth Kelly

Flavio Del Santo, Emanuel Schwarzhans

Vienna today is one of the capitals of research on foundations of quantum physics. We reconstruct the development of modern physics in Vienna, with a focus on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM), which is a sub-field of quantum mechanics. We show that the influence of Erwin Schrödinger and, in more recent years, the initiatives of Anton Zeilinger-the two main intuitive reasons-cannot alone account for today's outstanding research landscape on FQM in Vienna. We highlight four additional factors that played a crucial role in the development of foundational research in Vienna: 1) the Viennese heritage of the cultural golden age just before World War II; 2) the long-lasting institutional connection between the faculty of physics and philosophy; 3) a rise of several initiatives that gave forum to the interplay of physics and philosophy; and 4) the influence of several external scholars in the Viennese scientific landscape. Our analysis is informed by interviews with the most pertinent scientists, a detailed survey of the relevant social networks, and review of the main primary literature.

Cord Friebe, Meinard Kuhlmann, Holger Lyre +3 more