Karl Popper's forgotten role in the quantum debate at the edge between philosophy and physics in 1950s and 1960S

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2019.05.002MaRDI QIDQ2272834zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Flavio Del Santo

Publication date 16 September 2019

Published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.00902

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05)

Abstract: It is not very well known that the philosopher Karl Popper has been one of the foremost critics of the orthodox interpretation of quantum physics for about six decades. This paper reconstructs in detail most of Popper's activities on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM) in the period of 1950s and 1960s, when his involvement in the community of quantum physicists became extensive and quite influential. Thanks to unpublished documents and correspondence, it is now possible to shed new light on Popper's central - though neglected - role in this "thought collective" of physicists concerned with FQM, and on the intellectual relationships that Popper established in this context with some of the protagonists of the debate over quantum physics (such as David Bohm, Alfed Land'e and Henry Margenau, among many others). Foundations of quantum mechanics represented in those years also the initial ground for the embittering controversy between Popper and perhaps his most notable former student, Paul Feyerabend. I present here novel elements to further understand the origin of their troubled relationship.

Recommendations

• Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-like experiment and its resonance amongst the physics community in the 1980s
• A Historical Survey of Sir Karl Popper's Contribution to Quantum Mechanics
• Karl Popper and the Copenhagen interpretation
• A story without an ending: The quantum physics controversy 1950--1970
• Quantum dissidents: research on the foundations of quantum theory circa 1970

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Cited in

(11)

• Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-like experiment and its resonance amongst the physics community in the 1980s
• Corroborations and criticisms. Forays with the philosophy of Karl Popper
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1442371 (Why is no real title available?)
• The origins of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics (and other critical activities) in Italy during the 1970s
• A Historical Survey of Sir Karl Popper's Contribution to Quantum Mechanics
• Feyerabend on the Quantum Theory of Measurement: A Reassessment
• Popper, Bohr and the contextuability in quantum mechanics
• Quantum dissidents: research on the foundations of quantum theory circa 1970
• An unpublished debate brought to light: Karl Popper's enterprise against the logic of quantum mechanics
• Bohm's theory of quantum mechanics and the notion of classicality
• Karl Popper and the Copenhagen interpretation

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