Document Type
Article
Keywords
Heisenberg, Schrödinger, quantum mechanics, quantum mechanics vs. classical physics, wave mechanics, Bohr, Kant, empirical objectivtiy, physical objectivity, Dondeyne, Heidegger, public objectvity, crisis, classical intentionality structure, Pauli, indeterminacy principle, uncertainty principle, Unanschaulichkeit, intuition, indeterminacy of the factual, Eddington
Disciplines
Continental Philosophy | Philosophy | Philosophy of Science | Physics | Quantum Physics
Abstract
In this chapter Heelan discusses how Heisenberg's insight of 1925, that physics should concern itself henceforth only with relations between observables, changed the intentionality-structure of physics. This insight led Heisenberg to the construction of a quantum mechanics of observables. Heelan briefly discusses the significance of his insighand of his rejection of Schrödinger's wave mechanics; the novelty of quantum mechanics as a physical theory, and the meaning he attributed to its most surprising result, viz., the Indeterminacy Relations. The crisis was a crisis of the rationalism inherent in the outlook of classical physics, and Heisenberg's insistence on "observable quantities" was a return to the individual and empirical manifestations of reality which as such, to our way of knowing, are penetrated with a certain random quality.
Article Number
1015
Publication Date
1965
Recommended Citation
Heelan, Patrick A., "The Discovery of Quantum Mechanics" (1965). Research Resources. 15.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/phil_research/15
