Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View by Bas C. van Fraassen

by Bas C. Van Fraassen

After introducing the empiricist point of view in philosophy of science, and the concepts and methods of the semantic approach to scientific theories, Professor van Fraassen discusses quantum theory in three stages. He first examines the question of whether and how empirical phenomena require a non-classical theory, and what sort of theory they require. He then discusses the mathematical foundations of quantum theory with special reference to developments in the modelling of interaction, composite systems, and measurement. Finally, the author broaches the main questions of interpretation. After offering a critique of earlier interpretations, he develops a new one - the modal interpretation - which attempts to stay close to the original Copenhagen ideas without implying a radical incompleteness in quantum theory. He again gives special attention to the character of composite, many-body systems and especially to the peculiar character of assemblies of identical particles in quantum statistics.

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Physics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bastiaan Cornelis van Fraassen is a Dutch-American philosopher noted for his seminal contributions to philosophy of science. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University and the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University.

Reviews

[Joshua Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: The fact that I'm giving Quantum Mechanics 5-stars does not mean I am recommending it unilaterally. The context of the review is always important, and the qualifications of the recommendation are, too. In this one more than most.

van Fraassen's treatment of quantum mechanics is a bit dated, but the fundamental work that the text looks at, and its method, are very impressive. Bas attempts to provide an illustration of his empiricist approach to quantum mechanics, rather than simply a descriptive effort. [For the descriptive account of his constructive empiricism, see The Scientific Image.] The writing, as with much of Bas' work, is at best incredibly difficult and worst impossible to follow without fluency in the mathematics and logic. My background in quantum mechanics was not sufficient to follow a lot of the discussion of modeling, and even some of the work in quantum logic was a bit beyond my comprehension, though generally much closer to home. With that said, I would guess that I understood about 20-30% of the claims Bas is making about the substance of quantum mechanics; without some formal training, and without having previously read some of his other work, that would've been 0%, or close to it.

This is not a book for folks who are looking for an introduction to philosophy of physics. Don't do that to yourself. Bas is not writing for you, and will not accomodate you in the slightest.

That said, there's a fair amount of substantive philosophy that happens in the book. In the parts that are interspersed with the difficult physics, the philosophy was often a moment of rest for me, not feeling the constant struggle to understand. The concluding section of the book is wealthy with good philosophy, and could probably be a good journal article without the 400+ preceding pages on quantum mechanics. However, it does feel like a worthwhile payoff, even with some of Bas' weirder notions about the importance of Aquinas [which I, personally, could do without, but show a little bit of Bas' personality as a thinker].

What the book does is intellectually important for those who are interested in the most challenging debates in philosophy of physics; it doesn't contribute quite as much to what I'd call the major disputes in philosophy of science [empiricism v. rationalism; realism v. description dependence; etc.] but it does a good job of forcing the analytic philosopher who is trying to think about physics to acknowledge the important problems in the relationship of metaphysics to logic, logic to mathematical modeling, and mathematical modeling to physics proper. While the book could easily have started with the problems of logic and mathematics as a base [it starts from the problems of modeling; I suspect that the logic and mathematics is in Bas' other work, which I hope to read in the future] its refusal to do so makes it harder on philosophers who think that a good grasp on the logic is going to cut it for understanding quantum mechanics; have a rudimentary understanding of the mathematical expression is not really sufficient.

I will say that I found the book compelling, frustrating, and even painful. It's a battle to get through the nearly 500 pages of primary text [not to mention notes] acknowledging the level of background that I don't have in physics, but it is enormously rewarding, and promises a good reread. I'm fairly sure this is one of those books that I'll come back to three or four more times during my career, trying to glean more as I learn more about the physics and can have a more educated reading of the text.

I'd recommend this book if, and only if, you have a strong base in logic and in physics; I wouldn't recommend it to myself, given my own lack of extensive training in physics. That said, I'm glad I subjected myself to it.