Hans Halvorson Physics, Logic, Philosophy

Werner Heisenberg

  • Werner Heisenberg was Bohr’s closest collaborator during the crucial time of consolidation of quantum mechanics (circa 1926).

  • Heisenberg is (in)famous for proposing to eliminate all but measurable quantities in quantum mechanics. The resulting “theory” is called matrix mechanics.

  • Heisenberg and Bohr had severe disagreements about the derivation and meaning of the uncertainty relations. See (Camilleri 2007)

  • Schrödinger and Heisenberg were at each other’s necks in 1926. Bohr suggested that both of them had insights that needed to be taken account of in a final formulation of quantum mechanics.

  • Heisenberg wrote detailed accounts of his interactions with Bohr, including philosophical discussions (see (Heisenberg 2013). However, the historical accuracy of some of Heisenberg’s accounts (e.g. of their discussions) is somewhat questionable. Heisenberg seems frequently to interpret Bohr’s philosophical statements through the lense of his own evolving philosophy of nature.

  • Heisenberg was involved in Nazi Germany’s atomic bomb project. Did he try to sabotage it? That’s what he claimed after the war.

Primary sources

  • Die Physikalische Prinzipien der Quantentheorie.
  • Die Physik der Atomkerne.
  • Der Teil und das Ganze: Gespräche im Umkreis der Atomphysik. Piper Verlag, 2013. \(\Rightarrow\) Physics and Beyond
  • “Ordnung der Wirklichkeit.” In W. Heisenberg, Ordnung der Wirklichkeit: Mit einer Einleitung von Helmut Rechenberg und einem Kommentar von Ernst Peter Fischer, pp. 27-195. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2019.
  • Physics and Philosophy. George allen and Unwin
  • Wandlungen in den Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaft.

Secondary sources

  • Favrholdt, D. (2020). Spaltningen. Niels Bohr og Werner Heisenberg i videnskab og politik. Lindhardt og Ringhof.
  • Cassidy, David C. Beyond uncertainty: Heisenberg, quantum physics, and the bomb. Bellevue Literary Press, 2010.
  • Cassidy, D. “Heisenberg, Uncertainty.” Quantum Mechanics: Science and Society (2013): 146.
  • Cassidy, D. Uncertainty: The life and science of Werner Heisenberg.
  • Hörz. Werner Heisenberg und die Philosophie.
  • Werner, R.F., and Farrelly, T. “Uncertainty from Heisenberg to today.” Foundations of Physics 49 (2019): 460-491.
  • Hilgevoord, Jan, and Jos Uffink. “The uncertainty principle.” (2001). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Rovelli, Carlo. “Heisenberg mechanics is the good mechanics.” Conceptual Problems of Quantum Gravity 2 (1991): 126.

External resources

References

(Heelan 2012) (Camilleri 2009)

Camilleri, Kristian. 2007. “Bohr, Heisenberg and the Divergent Views of Complementarity.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (3): 514–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2006.10.002.
———. 2009. Heisenberg and the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Cambridge University Press.
Heelan, Patrick A. 2012. Quantum Mechanics and Objectivity: A Study of the Physical Philosophy of Werner Heisenberg. Springer.
Heisenberg, Werner. 2013. Der Teil Und Das Ganze: Gespräche Im Umkreis Der Atomphysik. Piper Verlag.