Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism: Philosophical Responses to Quantum Mechanics

by Christopher Norris

This book is a critical introduction to the long-standing debate concerning the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and the problems it has posed for physicists and philosophers from Einstein to the present. Quantum theory has been a major infulence on postmodernism, and presents significant problems for realists. Keeping his own realist position in check, Christopher Norris subjects a wide range of key opponents and supporters of realism to a high and equal level of scrutiny. With a characteristic combination of rigour and intellectual generosity, he draws out the merits and weaknesses from opposing arguments. In a sequence of closely argued chapters, Norris examines the premises of orthodox quantum theory, as developed most influentially by Bohr and Heisenberg, and its impact on varous philosophical developments. These include the ideas developed by W.V Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen, and Hilary Puttnam. In each case, Norris argues, these thinkers have been influenced by the orthodox construal of quantum mechanics as requiring drastic revision of principles which had hitherto defined the very nature of scientific method, causal explanati and rational enquiry. Putting the case for a realist approach which adheres to well-tried scientific principles of causal reasoning and inference to the best explanation, Christopher Norris clarifies these debates to a non-specialist readership and scholars of philosophy, science studies and the philosophy of science alike. Quantum Theory and the Flight From Realism suggests that philosophical reflection can contribute to a better understanding of these crucial, current issues.

Genres: Philosophy, Science

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

As of 2007 he is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at Cardiff University. He completed his PhD in English at University College London in 1975, while Sir Frank Kermode served as the Lord Northcliffe Professor of modern English literature there.

Until 1991 Norris taught in the Cardiff English Department. He has also held fellowships and visiting appointments at a number of institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, the City University of New York and Dartmouth College.

He is one of the world's leading scholars on deconstruction, particularly in the work of Jacques Derrida. He has written numerous books and papers on literary theory and continental philosophy. Norris is now considered a philosopher in his own right: 2003's Life After Theory reference required featured an interview with Norris, placing him alongside Derrida as a significant contemporary.

Reviews

[Frank Jude · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful tonic of a book after such blatant woo-nonsense as The Secret; What the Bleep? and the mumbo-jumbo bullshit promulgated by Deepak Chopra, Rupert Sheldrake, Fred Wolf and company. What gets short shrift in contemporary discourse is that there are other interpretations beside the infamous "Copenhagen Interpretation" of quantum physics and that those who accept it do so based upon myriad philosophical confusions.

Norris, however, attacks the anti-realist position while presenting an even-handed survey of the critical arguments pro and con, leading to a strong case supporting a realist interpretation. Over the course of Norris' tightly reasoned and argued essays, he clearly elucidates the assumptions of "orthodox" quantum theory as set forth by Bohr and Heisenberg and then surveys various theses of Quine, Kuhn, Putnam and others.

He also puts forth some interesting ideas as to why so many were and are so quick to stake everything on the Copenhagen interpretation based upon the cultural and political traumas of the mid-20th century, leading to the dead-end of "post-modernism" and "cultural relativism" that still infects so much of popular culture.