Grete Hermann as Neo-Kantian Philosopher of Space and Time Representation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/jhap.v6i3.3441Abstract
Grete Hermann’s essay “Die naturphilosophischen Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik” (1935) has received much deserved scholarly attention in recent years. In this paper, I follow the lead of Elise Crull (2017) who sees in Hermann’s work the general outlines of a neo-Kantian interpretation of quantum theory. In full support of this view, I focus on Hermann’s central claim that limited spatio-temporal, and even analogically causal, representations of events exist within an overall relational structure of entangled quantum mechanical states that defy any unified spatio-temporal description. In my view, Hermann also advances an important transcendental argument that perspectival spatio-temporal representations of nature have their foundations in general relational networks that are not spatio-temporal. The key point is that the adoption of a perspectival system within the general network induces the representation but only for that context. These ideas are consistent with a perspectival subject–object principle in Kant and also with Weyl’s work on Lie groups and their representations.References
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Mormann Thomas, 2015. “From Mathematics to Quantum Mechanics: On the Conceptual Unity of Cassirer’s Philosophy of Science (1907–1937).” In The Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer: A Novel Assessment, edited by J. T. Friedman and S. Luft, pp. 31–64. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Russell, Bertrand, 1927. The Analysis of Matter. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
Schlick, Moritz, 1931. “Die Kausalität in der gegenwärtigen Physik.” Die Naturwissenschaften 19: 145–62.
———, 1936. “Quantentheorie und Erkennbarkeit der Natur.” Erkenntnis 6: 317–26.
Singer, Stephanie Frank, 2001. Symmetry in Mechanics: A Gentle Modern Introduction. Boston: Birkhauser.
Woit, Peter, 2017. Quantum Theory: Groups and Representations. Dordrecht: Springer.
———, 2013. “Extension and Measurement: A Constructivist Program from Leibniz to Grassmann.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 44: 20–31.
———, 2014. The Realistic Empiricism of Mach, James, and Russell: Neutral Monism Reconceived. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beiser, Frederick C., 2014. The Genesis of Neo-Kantianism, 1796–1880. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bitbol, Michel, 1991. “Perspectival Realism and Quantum Mechanics.” In Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics 1990, edited by P. Lahti and P. Mittelstaedt, pp. 47–61. Singapore: World Scientific.
Cassirer, Ernst, 1956. Determinism and Indeterminism in Modern Physics. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Chevalley, Catherine, 1994. “Niels Bohr’s Words and the Atlantis of Kantianism.” In Niels Bohr and Contemporary Philosophy, edited by J. Faye and H. J. Folse, pp. 33–55. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Crull, Elise, 2017. “Hermann and the Relative Context of Observation.” In Crull and Bacciagalupi (2017), pp. 149–69.
Crull, Elise and Guido Bacciagalupi, 2009. “Heisenberg (and Schrödinger, and Pauli) on Hidden Variables.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B 40: 374–82.
———, eds., 2017. Grete Hermann—Between Physics and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer.
Fine, Arthur, 1986. The Shaky Game. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Friedman, Michael, 2012. “Kant on Geometry and Spatial Intuition.” Synthese 186: 231–55.
Hatfield, Gary, 1991. The Natural and the Normative. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Heisenberg, Werner, 1930. The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———, 1979. Quantentheorie und Philosophie. Stuttgart: Reclam.
Hermann, Grete, 1935/2017. “Natural-Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.” Translated into English in Crull and Bacciagalupi (2017), pp. 239–78.
———, 1936. “Zum Vortrag Schlicks.” Erkenntnis 6: 342–43.
Herzenberg, C. L., 2008. “Grete Hermann: An Early Contributor to Quantum Theory.” arXiv:physics.gen-ph/0812.3986v1.
Howard, Don, 2004. “Who Invented the ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ ? A Study in Mythology.” Philosophy of Science 71: 669–82.
Jammer, Max, 1974. The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. New York: Wiley.
Kant, Immanuel, 1998. Critique of Pure Reason, edited and translated by P. Guyer and A. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Massimi, Michela, 2016. “Four Kinds of Perspectival Truth.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research preprint, 10.1111/ phpr.12300.
Mormann Thomas, 2015. “From Mathematics to Quantum Mechanics: On the Conceptual Unity of Cassirer’s Philosophy of Science (1907–1937).” In The Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer: A Novel Assessment, edited by J. T. Friedman and S. Luft, pp. 31–64. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Russell, Bertrand, 1927. The Analysis of Matter. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
Schlick, Moritz, 1931. “Die Kausalität in der gegenwärtigen Physik.” Die Naturwissenschaften 19: 145–62.
———, 1936. “Quantentheorie und Erkennbarkeit der Natur.” Erkenntnis 6: 317–26.
Singer, Stephanie Frank, 2001. Symmetry in Mechanics: A Gentle Modern Introduction. Boston: Birkhauser.
Woit, Peter, 2017. Quantum Theory: Groups and Representations. Dordrecht: Springer.
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2018-02-05
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