Metascience

When the 5th Solvay conference on quantum theory took place in Brussels in 1927, the quantum community had undergone 2 years of rapid development and intense debate. Within the period from 1925 to 1927, matrix and wave mechanics had been developed independently of each other. The two theories were proven to be mathematically equivalent and turned out to be two formulations of an overarching quantum mechanical formalism. During this time, the new theories were applied to various problems that had long resisted solution and extended to new phenomena that were beyond their initial scope.Concurrently with this development, the proponents of wave mechanics and matrix mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg and the physicists from Göttingen and Copenhagen, first entered a heated debate on the meaning of quantum mechanics. At the heart of their discussion were the fundamental changes that the new quantum mechanics implied for physical theories in general. Basic elements of classical m

2018

A variety of speculations about the nature of quantum mechanics and wavefunction collapse. A number of “key principles” are set down; these must surely hold true. Holding onto these, a variety of mathematical effects are explored, to see if or how they might be appropriate for describing QM, and its relationship to

The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics - Historical Analysis and Open Questions - Cesena 2004, 2006

This revisionist essay aimed at educated people who have learned physics from pop TV 'science'. It was written to correct the false impression of the historical development of Quantum Theory that has unfortunately become accepted as orthodoxy and has even entered popular culture (TV and book popularizations via the ‘magic’ word “Quantum”). This essay is a highly boiled-down version of a much larger paper aimed at professionals who are quite familiar with the technical outline. The implicit message here (and made explicit in the technical paper) is that both mathematical evolution and new physics experiments both threatened the 2,500-year​ dominance of the trio of traditional philosophy, physics and mathematics. The mathematical revolution will be omitted here as it is much too technical for a general audience but the ‘hidden’ story of quantum physics should be understandable to anyone with a strong imagination while recognizing the persistence of traditional ‘continuous’ concepts.

2006

2005

What were the real nature and role of the annus mirabilis, 1905, in Physics? In this paper we discuss in a historical perspective Planck’s and Einstein’s contributions as the fundamental steps in the scientific transformations (the latter with a sharper sense of methodological awareness) that led from the mechanistic and reductionist approach of 19 th century physics to the fulfillment of the formal revolution of quantum mechanics. This process underwent with further scientific breaks, in the context of the social and economic situation and the corresponding role of science.The mechanistic approach adopted in physics at the end of the 19 th century not only produced difficulties and contradictions, but resulted in the limitation of further scientific development. Chemists were the first, at that time, to perceive such limits, and introduce a thermodynamic approach, whose role in the revolution in physics must be underlined. Planck was the first physicist to introduce a procedure tha...

Boston Studies in Philosphy and History of Science, 2007

There were two philosophical breakthroughs that were made during the first decades of the 17th century. One was in the theory of knowledge, or epistemology, which was initiated by Francis Bacon. Another breakthrough was made by Galileo Galilei, in the subject of being and becoming, or of metaphysics. What we call science today appears to me to be the fruit of those two remarkable philosophical breakthroughs. I present a case for this claim.