Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-09T23:35:24.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Use of the Axiomatic Method in Quantum Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Yvon Gauthier*
Affiliation:
University of Sudbury, Canada

Extract

Although the introduction of the modern axiomatic method in physics is attributed to Hilbert, it is only recently that physicists and mathematicians have applied it significantly, i.e. on a basis extensive enough to promise fruitful results. Carnap, for one, stresses the importance of the axiomatic method, yet he considers its application in physics as a task for the future.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 by The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I am grateful to Professor Henry Margenau for many helpful comments.

References

[1] Bunge, M., Foundations of Physics, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Bunge, M., Scientific Research, 2 vols., Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3] Bunge, M., “Physical Axiomatics,” Review of Modern Physics, vol. 39, 1967, pp. 463474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Bunge, M. (ed.), Quantum Theory and Reality, Springer-Verlag, Berlin–Heidelberg–New York, 1967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Carnap, R., Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Basic Books, New York, 1966.Google Scholar
[6] Destouches, J. L., and Aeschlimann, F. (eds.), La méthode axiomatique dans les mécaniques classiques et nouvelles, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1963.Google Scholar
[7] Destouches-Février, P., La structure des théories physiques, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1951.Google Scholar
[8] Jauch, J. M., Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1968.Google Scholar
[9] Juhos, B., Die erkenntnislogischen Grundlagen der modernen Physik, Duncker und Humblot, Berlin, 1967.Google Scholar
[10] Goodman, R., and Segal, I. (eds.), Mathematical Theory of Elementary Particles, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1966.Google Scholar
[11] Heisenberg, W., “Grundlegende Voraussetzungen in der Physik der Elementarteilchen,” in Martin Heidegger, Festschrift zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, Neske, Pfullingen, 1959, pp. 291297.Google Scholar
[12] Heisenberg, W., “Die Entwicklung der einheitlichen Feldtheorie der Elementarteilchen,” Naturwissen., vol. 1, 1963, pp. 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Jammer, M., The conceptual development of Quantum Mechanics, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1966.Google Scholar
[14] Körner, S. (ed.), Observation and Interpretation in the Philosophy of Physics, Dover, New York, 1957.Google Scholar
[15] Landé, A., New Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1965.Google Scholar
[16] Ludwig, G., Die Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Göttingen-Heidelberg, 1954.Google Scholar
[17] Ludwig, G., “Versuch einer axiomatischen Grundlegung der Quantenmechanik und allgemeinerer physikalischer Theorien,” Zeitschrift für Physik, vol. 181, 233 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[18] Mackey, G. W., Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Benjamin, New York and Amsterdam, 1963.Google Scholar
[19] Mittelstaedt, P., Philosophische Probleme der modernen Physik, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim, 1963.Google Scholar
[20] Neumann, J. von, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1955.Google Scholar
[21] Neumann, J. von, Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik, Springer-Verlag, Berlin–Heidelberg–New York, 1968.Google Scholar
[22] Park, J. L., “Quantum Theoretical Concepts of Measurement,” Philosophy of Science, Part I, vol. XXXV, no. 3, September, 1968, pp. 205231, Part II, vol. XXXV, no. 4, December, 1968, pp. 389-411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[23] Park, J. L., and Margenau, H., “Simultaneous Measurability in Quantum Theory,” International Journal of Theoretical Physics, vol. I, 1968, pp. 211283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[24] Park, J. L., and Margenau, H., “The Logic of Noncommutability of Quantum Mechanical Operators and its Empirical Consequences: Nonrelativistic Theory” to appear in Alfred Landé's Festschrift. (Permission to quote from the preprint graciously granted by Professor Henry Margenau.)Google Scholar
[25] Reichenbach, H., Philosophic Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1944.Google Scholar
[26] Segal, I., “Postulates for General Quantum Mechanics,” Annals of Mathematics, vol. 48, 930 (1947).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[27] Strauss, M., “Corrections to Bunge's Foundations of Physics,” Synthese, vol. 19, No. 3/4, April, 1969, pp. 433442.Google Scholar
[28] Suppes, P., “Probability Concepts in Quantum Mechanics,” Philosophy of Science, vol. XXVIII, 1961, pp. 378389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[29] Wick, G. C., Wightman, A. S., and Wigner, E., Physical Review, vol. 88, 101 (1952).CrossRefGoogle Scholar