Durch eine Untersuchung der Stoßvorgänge wird die Auffassung entwickelt, daß die Quantenmechanik in der Schrödingerschen Form nicht nur die stationären Zustände, sondern auch die Quantensprünge zu beschreiben gestattet.

Presents German physicist Werner Heisenberg's 1958 text in which he discusses the philosophical implications and social consequences of quantum mechanics and other physical theories.

An attempt is made to give a coherent account of the logical essence of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory. The central point is that quantum theory is fundamentally pragmatic, but nonetheless complete. The principal difficulty in understanding quantum theory lies in the fact that its completeness is incompatible with external existence of the space—time continuum of classical physics.

Empirical adequacy, formal explanation and understanding are distinct goals of science. While no a priori criterion for understanding should be laid down, there may be inherent limitations on the way we are able to understand explanations of physical phenomena. I examine several recent contributions to the exercise of fashioning an explanatory discourse to mold the formal explanation provided by quantum mechanics to our modes of understanding. The question is whether we are capable of truly understanding (or comprehending) quantum phenomena, as (...) opposed to simply accepting the formalism and certain irreducible quantum correlations. The central issue is that of understanding versus merely redefining terms to paper over our ignorance. (shrink)

The Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was often called the conscience of physics. He was famous for his sharp and critical mind which made him a central figure among the founders of quantum physics. He also was an outstanding philosopher, especially interested in finding a new conception of reality and of causality. A careful study of the original sources of the past culminated in his study of Kepler and of medieval symbolism, a concept that played a central role in his (...) discussion with Carl Jung on what they called the psycho-physical problem. Pauli considered the sharp distinctions between knowledge and faith and between spirit and matter as dangerous. He thought they should complement each other in our comprehension of reality. Professor Laurikainen here for the first time describes Pauli's ideas in detail. His book is based on the large and as yet unpublished correspondence between Pauli and M. Fierz. Its careful analysis adds depth and clarity to the few publications by Pauli on philosophical problems and explains why Pauli grasped the meaning of atomic theory more deeply than even Niels Bohr himself. The book should interest both philosophers and physicists and should encourage further studies on Pauli the humanist and his contribution to our understanding of reality. (shrink)

We briefly review the history of de Broglie's notion of the “double solution” and of the ideas which developed from this. We then go on to an extension of these ideas to the many-body system, and bring out the nonlocality implied in such an extension. Finally, we summarize further developments that have stemmed from de Broglie's suggestions.

SummaryThe following two questions are examined: 1o Do the unobservable parameters possess precise, though unknown, values ? 2o If these unobservable values were known, would it be possible to make precise predictions of the reults of later measurements ?The answer is shown to be negative; the questions, therefore, are not meaningless, being capable of a falsification. The inquiry leads to the establishment of a principle of anomaly, more precisely speaking, of causal anomaly, which is to be added to Heisenberg's principle (...) of indeterminacy. This principle states that the principle of action by contact is violated whenever definite values are assigned to the unobserved quantities, i. e., when an exhaustive interpretation of quantum mechanics is used. The two most important exhaustive interpretations are given by the corpuscle and the wave interpretation; each leads to causal anomalies, though for different places.The causal anomalies can be eliminated by the use of a restrictive interpretation, which separates statements about unobserved quantities, as a third propositional class, from true or false statements. Bohr and Heisenberg have called such statements meaningless, without being able to eliminate them completely; these statements arte thus merely shifted into the metalanguage. In another version of the restrictive interpretation such statements are assigned a third truth value, the value indeterminate, and quantum mechanics is then presented in the form of a three‐valued logic.The inquiry is carried through without the presupposition of any philosophical conception; every interpretation is examined with respect to the consequences to which it leads. ‐ H. R.'. (shrink)