Abstract
The title1 ‘Classical and quantum descriptions’ is a technical version of the problem of a semantical interpretation of quantum theory. The question is: what does quantum theory mean? Hence the task is not to improve quantum theory by new additions, but to understand it. Its mathematical structure is not disputed. On the existing interpretation — usually called the Copenhagen interpretation — there have been decades of discussion. They have their origin in the fact that we can only accept this interpretation if we take some rather fundamental philosophical decisions. In this paper I do not try to argue for these decisions except for an attempt to contribute to a clarification of their meaning. I take a particular approach in starting from the idea of a quantum logic. This is in my view not a peculiar ‘empirical’ logic, but a specification of a general logic of temporal statements, that is of statements on facts and possibilities. Statements on facts are ‘classical descriptions’, statements on possibilities are embodied in the quantum state vectors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References and Notes
This title was proposed to me by Jagdish Mehra, and I gladly accept it. I also accept his proposal to give a somewhat more extended presentation in the written paper than can be given orally.
P. Mittelstaedt, Philosophische Probleme der modernen Physik, Mannheim 1963, and a paper presented in München 1972.
This and the following sections are shortened versions of parts of a book which M. Drieschner and I are preparing. Some of the philosophical ideas are more broadly developed in my book Die Einheit der Natur, München 1971.
G. Frege, Über Sinn und Bedeutung, 1892, reprinted in “Funktion und Begriff”, ed. G. Patzig, Göttingen 1963, and in “Kleine Schriften”, ed. I. Angelelli, Darmstadt 1967. My use of the two concepts does not fully agree with Frege’s.
A. Church, Introduction to Mathematical Logic I, Princeton 1956, p. 4.
Über Sinn und Bedeutung, p. 34.
See my paper in Ann. Physik 36, 275 (1939), reprinted in Einheit der Natur, pp. 172–82, and the History of Nature, Chicago 1950, 4th lecture.
The Feynman-Wheeler theory is forced to introduce the same so-called causal asymmetry (that is the phenomenal meaning of causality and time) by an absorption to which there is no corresponding emission or by an expanding rather than a contracting universe.
See J. M. Jauch, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Addison Wesley (1968).
M. Drieschner, Quantum Mechanics as a General Theory of Prediction (1968). It is described in my contribution to Quantum Theory and Beyond (ed. T. Bastin), Cambridge (1971), reprinted in German in Einheit der Natur, pp. 249–63.
P. A. M. Dirac, Physik. Zeitschr. der Sowjetunion 3, 64 (1933).
A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, N. Rosen, Phys. Rev. 47, 111 (1935).
H. Everett III, Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 454 (1957).
E. Husserl, Zur Phänomenologie des innereen Zitbewusstseins (1893–1917), (ed. R. Boehm), den Haag 1966 (Husserliana X ), p. 28.
This formula came to my mind like an answer after months of reflection on what Bohr had said when I first met him (1932). Later on I learned from K. Meyer-Abich that it is a sentence written by William James whom Bohr had read just then.
G. Süssmann used this example in our discussions 15 years ago.
K. Popper, Logic of Research. See my remarks on it in Quanten und Felder (ed. H. P. Dürr ), 1971, p. 20–24.
Addition (1968) to chapter V of Logic of Research.
Th. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
W. Heisenberg, Der Teil und das Ganze, München (1969).
C. F. v. Weizsäcker, E.Scheibe, G. Süssmann, Naturforsch. 13a, 705, (1958). See also my contribution to Quantum Theory and Beyond, note 10 above.
J. Schwinger, reprinted in Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum, Dover.
R. Penrose, in Quantum Theory and Beyond.
D. Finkelstein, Phys. Rev. 184, 1261 (1969) and D5, 320 (1972).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1973 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
von Weizsäcker, C.F. (1973). Classical and Quantum Descriptions. In: Mehra, J. (eds) The Physicist’s Conception of Nature. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2602-4_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2602-4_31
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-2604-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2602-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive