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arXiv:quant-ph/9601007 · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

QUANTUM PHILOSOPHY The Flight from Reason in Science a

Sheldon Goldstein

Published Jun 1, 1995• 13 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

This is a talk concerning the irrationality of prominent physicists with regard to the foundations of quantum mechanics, delivered at a conference on the irrationality of the postmodern attack on science by nonscientists.
DOI
10.1111/j.1749-6632.1996.tb23133.x

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We describe and analyze the details of the first visit of the Viennese physicist Erwin Schröding-er to Spain, in the summer of 1934. The reason for the trip was the invitation he received from the International University of Santander, a meeting he attended after participating in the XIV Conference of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science that took place that same summer in Santiago de Compostela. We will discuss the impact of this visit on the first developments of quantum mechanics in Spain and see the role that personalities such as Xavier Zubiri or Blas Cabrera played in this episode. We will also put this visit in the context of Schrödinger’s personal and academic life, especially as regards the content of his talks. We will see that what he presented in Santiago and Santander should be considered as an advan-ce of his criticism of the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics. We leave for a second installment the trip he made in the spring of 1935, less than a year later, this time with his wife Annie, and in which he delivered various conferences and courses on wave mechanics in Madrid.
This book is a critical introduction to the long-standing debate concerning the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and the problems it has posed for physicists and philosophers from Einstein to the present. Quantum theory has been a major infulence on postmodernism, and presents significant problems for realists. Keeping his own realist position in check, Christopher Norris subjects a wide range of key opponents and supporters of realism to a high and equal level of scrutiny. With a characteristic combination of rigour and intellectual generosity, he draws out the merits and weaknesses from opposing arguments. In a sequence of closely argued chapters, Norris examines the premises of orthodox quantum theory, as developed most influentially by Bohr and Heisenberg, and its impact on varous philosophical developments. These include the ideas developed by W.V Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen, and Hilary Puttnam. In each case, Norris argues, these thinkers have been influenced by the orthodox construal of quantum mechanics as requiring drastic revision of principles which had hitherto defined the very nature of scientific method, causal explanati and rational enquiry. Putting the case for a realist approach which adheres to well-tried scientific principles of causal reasoning and inference to the best explanation, Christopher Norris clarifies these debates to a non-specialist readership and scholars of philosophy, science studies and the philosophy of science alike. Quantum Theory and the Flight From Realism suggests that philosophical reflection can contribute to a better understanding of these crucial, current issues.
This book is a critical introduction to the long-standing debate concerning the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and the problems it has posed for physicists and philosophers from Einstein to the present. Quantum theory has been a major infulence on postmodernism, and presents significant problems for realists. Keeping his own realist position in check, Christopher Norris subjects a wide range of key opponents and supporters of realism to a high and equal level of scrutiny. With a characteristic combination of rigour and intellectual generosity, he draws out the merits and weaknesses from opposing arguments. In a sequence of closely argued chapters, Norris examines the premises of orthodox quantum theory, as developed most influentially by Bohr and Heisenberg, and its impact on varous philosophical developments. These include the ideas developed by W.V Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen, and Hilary Puttnam. In each case, Norris argues, these thinkers have been influenced by the orthodox construal of quantum mechanics as requiring drastic revision of principles which had hitherto defined the very nature of scientific method, causal explanati and rational enquiry. Putting the case for a realist approach which adheres to well-tried scientific principles of causal reasoning and inference to the best explanation, Christopher Norris clarifies these debates to a non-specialist readership and scholars of philosophy, science studies and the philosophy of science alike. Quantum Theory and the Flight From Realism suggests that philosophical reflection can contribute to a better understanding of these crucial, current issues.