Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T21:20:50.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interpreting Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Arthur Fine
Arthur Fine*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the quantum theory the state of an evolving system is represented by a function that depends on time and perhaps on some other parameters. It is generally called the “psi-function”, and it evolves according to an equation called the Schrödinger equation. Indeed Schrödinger introduced the psi-function into physics. In the beginning (i.e., in 1926) Schrödinger thought that the psi-function referred to a fuzzy bit of reality. That is, he pictured an electron, whose state was given by a certain psi-function, as a pulsating bit of electricity, something like an electrical cloud or a patch of electrical fog. In short order, however, Schrödinger saw difficulties with this interpretation, and after trying out more sophisticated refinements he abandoned the whole project. What he abandoned was the program of trying to interpret the psi-function as directly representing some spatiotemporal features of the object whose state it characterized.

Type
Part I. Presidential Address
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1988 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1988 , 1988 , pp. 2 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

An earlier version of this paper was read at a conference on the autonomy of philosophy of science held at the University of Virginia. I want to thank the participants there, and especially Paul Humphreys, for useful comments.

References

Fine, A. (1971), “Probability in Quantum Mechanics and in Other Statistical Theories,” in Bunge, M. (ed.) Problems in the Foundations of Physics. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 79–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, A. (1986a), “The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism and the Quantum Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fine, A. (1986b), “Unnatural Attitudes: Realist and Instrumentalist Attachments to Science”, Mind 95:149-79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrödinger, E. (1935), “Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik”, Naturwisssenschaften 23: 807-12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stairs, A. (1983), “Quantum Logic, Realism and Value Definiteness”, Philosophy of Science: 50: 578–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, P. (1979), “Quantum Mechanics and the Nature of Continuous Physical Quantities”, Journal of Philosophy 76: 345-61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B. (1980), The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar