MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Jul 6, 2018
Karl Popper’s Contribution to the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

Karl Popper’s Contribution to the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics

Flavio Del Santo
Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), Vienna and Basic Research Community for Physics


Karl R. Popper (1902-1994) is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of twentieth century, and his falsificationism – as a criterion of demarcation – has profoundly influenced modern science. However, it is not well known that Popper greatly contributed to the debate over quantum mechanics for about 60 years. Indeed, Popper “fought a lone battle against the Copenhagen interpretation at a time at a time when anyone attempting to criticize orthodoxy was liable to be labelled at best an 'outsider' or at worst a crank” [1]. Popper’s contribution to foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM) can be divided into at least three different periods of his career: (i) as early as 1934 he conceived a Gedankenexperiment which, despite being physically mistaken, allowed him to have direct confrontations with the founding fathers of quantum physics such as Einstein, Heisenberg and Bohr and possibly even influenced Einstein in the development of the EPR argument. In the late 1960s, (ii) Popper came back to the fundamental issues of quantum mechanics and he also formulated a new interpretation of probability and at the same time of quantum mechanics – the propensity interpretation – gathering the support of several important physicists the likes of Bohm and de Broglie [2, 3]. At last, (iii) in the 1980s, Popper gave another major contribution to foundation of QM, when he designed a new version of the EPR thought experiment [4] alleged to put to the test the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and the whole Copenhagen interpretation along with it; at that time, he became affectively part of the physics community collaborating with some of the main critics of quantum orthodoxy, such as Vigier and Selleri.
In this talk I will report on a research program that aims at reconstructing in detail the engagement of Karl Popper in the FQM with a focus on the role that he played, from time to time, in the community of physicists concerned with foundations of quantum physics.

 
[1] M. Redhead. 1995. M. Popper and the quantum theory. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 39: 163-176.
[2] F. Del Santo. 2018. Karl Popper's engagement in quantum physics in the 1960s, in A. Garuccio, B. Campanile and L. De Faenza, Proceedings of SISFA Congress of Bari 2017. In press.
[3] F. Del Santo. 2018. Karl Popper’s Forgotten Role in the Quantum Debate at the Edge between Philosophy and Physics in 1950s and 1960s. Preprint.
[4] F. Del Santo. 2018. Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-Like Experiment and its Resonance amongst the Physics Community in the 1980s. Studies on History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 62: 56-60.

Organizer(s)
Address

MPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Room
Room 219
Contact and Registration

For further questions please contact Kseniia Mohelsky.

2018-07-06T11:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2018-07-06 11:00:00 2018-07-06 12:00:00 Karl Popper’s Contribution to the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics Karl Popper’s Contribution to the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics Flavio Del Santo Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), Vienna and Basic Research Community for Physics Karl R. Popper (1902-1994) is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of twentieth century, and his falsificationism – as a criterion of demarcation – has profoundly influenced modern science. However, it is not well known that Popper greatly contributed to the debate over quantum mechanics for about 60 years. Indeed, Popper “fought a lone battle against the Copenhagen interpretation at a time at a time when anyone attempting to criticize orthodoxy was liable to be labelled at best an 'outsider' or at worst a crank” [1]. Popper’s contribution to foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM) can be divided into at least three different periods of his career: (i) as early as 1934 he conceived a Gedankenexperiment which, despite being physically mistaken, allowed him to have direct confrontations with the founding fathers of quantum physics such as Einstein, Heisenberg and Bohr and possibly even influenced Einstein in the development of the EPR argument. In the late 1960s, (ii) Popper came back to the fundamental issues of quantum mechanics and he also formulated a new interpretation of probability and at the same time of quantum mechanics – the propensity interpretation – gathering the support of several important physicists the likes of Bohm and de Broglie [2, 3]. At last, (iii) in the 1980s, Popper gave another major contribution to foundation of QM, when he designed a new version of the EPR thought experiment [4] alleged to put to the test the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and the whole Copenhagen interpretation along with it; at that time, he became affectively part of the physics community collaborating with some of the main critics of quantum orthodoxy, such as Vigier and Selleri. In this talk I will report on a research program that aims at reconstructing in detail the engagement of Karl Popper in the FQM with a focus on the role that he played, from time to time, in the community of physicists concerned with foundations of quantum physics.   [1] M. Redhead. 1995. M. Popper and the quantum theory. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 39: 163-176. [2] F. Del Santo. 2018. Karl Popper's engagement in quantum physics in the 1960s, in A. Garuccio, B. Campanile and L. De Faenza, Proceedings of SISFA Congress of Bari 2017. In press. [3] F. Del Santo. 2018. Karl Popper’s Forgotten Role in the Quantum Debate at the Edge between Philosophy and Physics in 1950s and 1960s. Preprint. [4] F. Del Santo. 2018. Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-Like Experiment and its Resonance amongst the Physics Community in the 1980s. Studies on History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 62: 56-60. Alexander Blum Alexander Blum Europe/Berlin public