Empiricism, Positivism and Post-Kantianism in Understanding Quantum Physics Cover Image

Empirism, pozitivism și post-kantianism în înțelegerea fizicii cuantice
Empiricism, Positivism and Post-Kantianism in Understanding Quantum Physics

Author(s): Dragoș Dragoman
Subject(s): Philosophy, History of Philosophy, 19th Century Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy
Published by: Eon – Asociație pentru Promovarea Culturii, Artei, Educației și Cercetării Științifice
Keywords: quantum mechanics; positivism; scientific inquiry; Kantianism; scientific revolutions;

Summary/Abstract: The entry of modern scientific research of the physical nature into the realm of the atom triggered a shock of an unprecedented magnitude. Besides the hopes and expectations of those researchers oriented towards a scientific theory in accordance with the previous standards of inquiry of the classical physics, the classical concepts were not sufficient anymore in describing the new reality. In the words of the researchers involved in the epochal discovery of the new atom model, as Bohr and Heisenberg, the new discovery points towards the necessity to adapt or to limit the use of older physical concepts. Although they are not sufficient anymore, physical science does not dispose of a new brand vocabulary. The entry of the research deep into the heart of atom brings new philosophical questions, which pertain to objectivity, fixed external reality, and distant observation. The fact that physical scientists merely avoided more complex philosophical investigations into the new scientific context seemed to have worked for the general orientation of the new sub-field towards more practical applications.

  • Issue Year: 4/2023
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 204-218
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Romanian