Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Quest for Compatibility Between the Causal Interpretation and the Wholeness Approach (1979–1992)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
David Bohm

Part of the book series: Springer Biographies ((SPRINGERBIOGS))

  • 762 Accesses

Abstract

In the 1980s, Bohm would spend more and more time dealing with a pressing challenge. The persistent quest to understand the quantum theory would lead him to look for a compatibility between his old causal interpretation and the recent wholeness approach. The pressure rose when some of his and Hiley’s students began to produce computerized graphs of the paths derived from the causal interpretation as well as diagrams of its quantum potential. In addition, the continuity of experiments related to Bell’s theorem, particularly those by the French physicist Alain Aspect, and the attention they aroused, brought to the foreground two distinct consequences. Experimental results were confirming quantum nonlocality but these results also show that Bohm’s hidden variables were compatible with these results. Bohm’s attempts were consolidated in the book The Undivided Universe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Interview of Basil Hiley by Olival Freire on 2008 January 11, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33822.

  2. 2.

    Interview of Chris Dewdney by Olival Freire on 2016 February 18, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA. Belinfante (1973, 91); the calculation for the Gaussian wave packet is in the Appendix G (Belinfante 1973, 194–197).

  3. 3.

    Interview of Chris Dewdney by Olival Freire, idem. The paper with the graphs is Philippidis et al. (1979). The source for the citations is Web of science, accessed on 21 Nov 2018.

  4. 4.

    On the history of the diffusion of Feynman’s diagrams, see Kaiser (2005).

  5. 5.

    Galison (1997) and Freire Junior (2015, 266).

  6. 6.

    Interview of Chris Dewdney by Olival Freire on 2016 February 18, AIP, College Park, MD USA. On the British context related to the publication “Science for People,” see Werskey (2007). On the Italian and American cases, see Freire Junior (2015), particularly chapter 6: “From the Streets into Academia”: Political Activism and the Reconfiguration of Physics Around 1970. On the role of contexts easing the flourishing of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics, see also Kaiser (2012) and Baracca et al. (2017).

  7. 7.

    Bohm (1980).

  8. 8.

    Krishnamurti citation is in (Bohm 1980, p. 26) and it comes from the book Freedom from Known Krishnamurti (1969).

  9. 9.

    The story of Bohm and Krishnamurti’s estrangement is narrated in an “Afterword” David Peat added to his Bohm’s biography after he knew of the correspondence between Bohm and the physicist Fritz Wilhelm, where the estrangement is evident. The citation is from a letter from Bohm to Wilhelm, on 28 Jan 1980, which is transcribed in Peat’s book. See Peat (1997, 323–330). The British printing of Bohm (1980) has the ISBN number 0-7100-0366-8. All the later printings kept the change with reference to Krishnamurti. Bohm did not add any explanation for the change.

  10. 10.

    In Science, Order & Creativity Bohm dedicated a section to discuss “The Responses of East and West to the Conditioning of Consciousness;” see (Bohm and Peat 1987, 255–260). On the criticism of the oversimplified representation of non-European cultures, see, for instance, Said (1978). I am thankful to Chris Talbot for discussion on this aspect.

  11. 11.

    The paper on hidden variables is Bohm (1962) and the papers on wholeness and implicate order are Bohm (1971, 1973). These papers are Chaps. 4, 5, and 6, respectively, in Bohm (1980).

  12. 12.

    Bohm (1980, 80).

  13. 13.

    Bohm’s citations are in Interview of David Bohm by Maurice Wilkins on 1987 April 3, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/32977-11.

  14. 14.

    On Shimony’s intellectual wide interests, see Shimony ( 1981, 1993) and Curd (1981). For a more critical review, see Park (1981).

  15. 15.

    Rosen (1982). John R. Seekamp to Bohm, 16 Oct 1987. Both documents are at Bohm Papers, Folders A.73 and B.79, respectively, Birkbeck College, London. Seekamp sent attached to his letter proofs of a review of Bohm’s book, which was scheduled to appear in Chrysalis, the foundation’s journal, in 1988.

  16. 16.

    For a detailed description of the early experiments dealing with Bell’s theorem, see Freire Junior (2015, 235–286).

  17. 17.

    Bohm and Hiley (1975) and Bell (1982).

  18. 18.

    On Bell’s works, see Bell (2004). On Everett’s work and its reception, see the work by Stefano Osnaghi, Fabio Freitas, and Olival Freire in (Freire Junior, 2015, 75–139). Everett’s original papers are in Everett et al. (2012).

  19. 19.

    Bell (2004, 204), Ghirardi et al. (1986) and Ghirardi (2002).

  20. 20.

    On these alternative interpretations and the early works on decoherence and quantum information, see (Freire Junior 2015, 287–338).

  21. 21.

    Bohm and Hiley (1993).

  22. 22.

    The Festschrift is Hiley and Peat (1987). Science, Order and Creativity is Bohm and Peat (1987), Sudbery (1988).

  23. 23.

    All papers are in Hiley and Peat (1987).

  24. 24.

    For a review of some of these attempts, see (Joaquim et al. 2015).

  25. 25.

    Pribram (1987).

  26. 26.

    The issues were in the volume 18, issues 7–18, 1988. On the creation of Foundations of Physics, see Freire Junior (2004, 1754). A nice picture of Bohm was included and he was invited to continue to serve on the journal’s editorial board, according to letter from the editor, Alwyn van der Merwe, 10 Oct 1988, Folder A. 128, Bohm Papers. Jammer (1988).

  27. 27.

    See: https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/redirector/?redir=archive/. Accessed on 22 Jan 2019.

  28. 28.

    Basil Hiley to Sessler, 9 January 1989. Folder A172, David Bohm Papers, Birkbeck College, London.

  29. 29.

    See citation at: https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo==%27EC%2F1990%2F03%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl, accessed on 14 Nov 2018. Congratulation letters, including Abdus Salam’s cable on 22 Mar 1990, are in Folders A.129 and A.174, Bohm Papers.

  30. 30.

    Reference to the holographic paradigm is by Donald Factor in the Introduction of Bohm (1985). Citations from Utne Reader, March/April 1991, pp. 82–83. [These are excerpts from an interview conducted by John Briggs and published in New Age Journal, Sep/Oct 1989]. Copy at Folder B.80, Bohm Papers. Bohm’s books include Bohm (1985, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2002). Bohm (1998) includes a preface by the American Indian Leroy Little Bear; Bohm (1985) has an introduction by Donald Factor; and Bohm (1994, 1996, 1998 and 2002) were edited and introduced by Lee Nichol.

  31. 31.

    For the “Résumé of discussion on western and eastern forms of insight into wholeness ,” see Bohm (1980, 25–33). For “The Responses of East and West to the Conditioning of Consciousness,” see Bohm and Peat (1987, 255–260).

  32. 32.

    Trevor Pinch, Opening Dialogue, Times Higher Education Supplement [1989], copy at Folder B.80, Bohm Papers.

  33. 33.

    Atkins (1989) and Dembart (1988).

  34. 34.

    On the Afroyim versus Rusk case, see Spiro (2005), particularly p. 159.

  35. 35.

    Edward Gudeon to Ehud Benamy, 11 Feb 1986, Folder A.123. Bohm recovered Einstein’s letters helped by Lilly Kahler and Hanna Loewy according to documents in Bohm Papers, Folders C.28 and C.41. Richard Haegele—American Consul in London—to David Bohm, 11 Feb 1986, Folder A.123. Bohm to Hanna Loewy, 3 March 1986, Folder C.41. All documents in Bohm Papers, Birkbeck College, London.

  36. 36.

    Maddox (1988). For an analysis of the changes in the physics community mood towards the research of the foundations of quantum mechanics, see Freire Junior (2015).

  37. 37.

    The two papers are Bohm and Hiley (1988), Bohm et al. (1988).

  38. 38.

    Bohm and Hiley (1988).

  39. 39.

    Bohm and Hiley (1988, 327).

  40. 40.

    Bohm and Hiley (1988, 341).

  41. 41.

    Bohm et al. (1988).

  42. 42.

    Bohm and Hiley (1993), Dürr and Teufel (2009), Holland (1993a) and Laloë (2012).

  43. 43.

    Bohm and Hiley (1993), Chap. 2, pp. 13–26.

  44. 44.

    The earlier publication is Bohm and Hiley (1988).

  45. 45.

    Bohm and Hiley (1993, 193–194), Bohm and Vigier (1954), Dürr et al. (1992) and Bohm (1957).

  46. 46.

    Bohm and Hiley (1993, 271).

  47. 47.

    Bohm and Hiley (1993, 381–388).

  48. 48.

    On the emergence of quantum information as a research subject, see Freire Junior (2015, 327–331). Later, Basil Hiley engaged in the analysis of the relationship between his approach and the emerging research on quantum information; see Maroney and Hiley (1999). On popular books about quantum gravity, see Smolin (2000) and Rovelli (2017).

  49. 49.

    Polkinghorne (1994) and Leslie (1994).

  50. 50.

    Goldstein (1994).

  51. 51.

    Holland’s book is Holland (1993a) and the review is Holland (1993b). Stapp (1994).

  52. 52.

    Pa[ve] Buckley to Bohm, 17 Sep 1991, Folder C.7, Bohm Papers; Sarah Bohm’s reminiscences, without date, Bohm Papers. I am thankful to Sue Godsell for sending me these reminiscences on 5 June 2016. Bohm’s severe depression along 1991 is described in a detailed manner in Peat (1997, 303–322). Peat suggests the trigger of this last burst of depression was the publication after Krishnamurti’s death of a book with problematic revelations about Krishnamurti’s personal life. See Peat (1997, 305). The book is Sloss (1991).

References

  • Atkins, P.W.: Wholesome ideals. Nature 338, 28 (1989)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Baracca, A., Bergia, S., Del Santo, F.: The origins of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics (and other critical activities) in Italy during the 1970s. Stud. Hist. Philos. Mod. Phys. 57, 66–79 (2017)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Belinfante, F.J.: A Survey of Hidden-Variables Theories. Pergamon, New York (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, J.S.: On the impossible pilot wave. Found. Phys. 12, 989–999 (1982). Reprinted in Bell, J.S.: Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy. With an Introduction by Alain Aspect, pp. 159–168. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, J.S.: Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy. With an Introduction by Alain Aspect. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2004)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Causality and chance in modern physics. Foreword by Louis De Broglie. Routledge and Paul, London (1957)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Hidden variables in the quantum theory. In: Bates, D.R. (ed.) Quantum Theory—III—Radiation and High Energy Physics, pp. 345–387. Academic, New York (1962)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Quantum theory as an indication of a new order in physics. Part A. The development of new order as shown through the history of physics. Found. Phys. 1(4), 359–381 (1971)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Quantum theory as an indication of a new order in physics. Part B. Implicate and explicate order in physical law. Found. Phys. 3(2), 139–168 (1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Unfolding Meaning—A Weekend of Dialogue with David Bohm. Routledge, London (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Thought as a System. [With a Foreword by Lee Nichol]. Routledge, London (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: On Dialogue. [Edited by Lee Nichol]. Routledge, London (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: On Creativity. [Edited by Lee Nichol]. Routledge, London (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: Limits of Thought: Discussions with Jiddu Krishnamurti. Routledge, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: The Essential David Bohm. [Editor Lee Nichol, Preface by the Dalai Lama]. Routledge, London (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.J., Hiley, B.J.: Intuitive understanding of nonlocality as implied by quantum-theory. Found. Phys. 5(1), 93–109 (1975)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D., Hiley, B.J.: An ontological basis for the quantum theory I. Non-relativistic Part. Syst. Phys. Rep., 144(6), 323–348 (1988)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D., Hiley, B.J.: The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory. Routledge, London (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D., Hiley, B.J., Kaloyerou, P.N.: An ontological basis for the quantum theory II. A Causal Interpretation Quantum Fields, Phys. Rep. 144(6), 349–375 (1988)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D., Peat, F.D.: Science, Order, and Creativity. Routledge, London (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D., Vigier, J.P.: Model of the causal interpretation of quantum theory in terms of a fluid with irregular fluctuations. Phys. Rev. 96(1), 208–216 (1954)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Curd, M.: Wholeness and the implicate order. Phys. Today 34(8), 58 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dürr, D., Goldstein, S., Zanghi, N.: Quantum chaos, classical randomness, and Bohmian mechanics. J. Stat. Phys. 68(1–2), 259–270 (1992)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Dembart, L.: The Zen of Quantum Mechanics. In: Los Angeles Times, The Book Review, p. 2 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dürr, D., Teufel, S.: Bohmian Mechanics—The Physics and Mathematics of Quantum Theory. Springer, Berlin (2009)

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Everett, H., Barrett, J.A., Byrne, P. (eds.).: The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Collected Works 1955–1980 with Commentary, pp. 57–60. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire Junior, O.: The historical roots of “foundations of quantum mechanics” as a field of research (1950–1970). Found. Phys. 34(11), 1741–1760 (2004)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Freire Junior, O.: The Quantum Dissidents—Rebuilding the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics 1950–1990. Springer, Berlin (2015)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Galison, P.: Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghirardi, G.C.: John Stewart Bell and the dynamical reduction program. In: Bertlmann, R.A., Zeilinger, A. (eds.) Quantum [Un]speakables—From Bell to Quantum Information, pp. 287–305. Springer, Berlin (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ghirardi, G.C., et al.: Unified dynamics for microscopic and macroscopic systems. Phys. Rev. D 34(2), 470–491 (1986)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, S.: The Undivided Universe: An ontological interpretation of Quantum Theory. Phys. Today 47(9), 90 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiley, B.J., Peat, F.D. (eds).: Quantum Implications: Essays in Honour of David Bohm. Routledge & Kegan Paul, New York (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland, P.R.: The Quantum Theory of Motion: An Account of the de Broglie-Bohm Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England (1993a)

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland, P.R.: Fringe physics. Nature 366, 420 (1993b)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Jammer, M.: David Bohm and his work on the occasion of his 70th-birthday. Found. Phys. 18(7), 691–699 (1988)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Joaquim, L., Freire Junior, O., El-Hani, C.: Quantum Explorers: Bohr, Jordan, and Delbrück Venturing into Biology. Phys. Perspect. 17, 236–250 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, D.: Drawing Theories Apart—The Dispersion of Feynman’s Diagrams in Postwar Physics. Chicago University Press, Chicago (2005)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser, D.: How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival. W. W. Norton, New York (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • Krishnamurti, J.: Freedom from the Known. Harper & Row, New York (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  • Laloë, F.: Do We Really Understand Quantum Mechanics?. Cambridge University Press, New York (2012)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Leslie, J.: The Absolute Now. London Rev. Books, 16(9), 15–16 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddox, J.: Licence to slang Copenhagen? Nature 332, 581 (1988)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Maroney, O., Hiley, B.J.: Quantum State Teleportation Understood through the Bohm Interpretation. Found. Phys. 29(9), 1403–1415 (1999)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Park, D.: Review of wholeness and the implicate order. Am. J. Phys. 49(8), 796 (1981)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Peat, F.D.: Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm. Addison Wesley, Reading, Ma (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Philippidis, C., Dewdney, C., Hiley, B.J.: Quantum interference and the quantum potential. Nuovo Cimento della Societa Italiana di Fisica B—Gen. Phys. Relat. Astron. Math. Phys. Methods 52(1), 15–28 (1979)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Polkinghorne, J.: Worlds of Difference, Times Higher Education Supplement, January 28, p. 21 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pribram, K. H.: The implicate brain. In Hiley, B.J., Peat, F.D. (eds.) Quantum Implications: Essays in Honour of David Bohm, pp. 365–371. Routledge & Kegan Paul, New York (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S.M.: David Bohm’s wholeness and the implicate order: an interpretive essay. Man Environ. Syst. 12(1), 9–18 (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rovelli, C.: Reality is Not What it Seems—The Journey to Quantum Gravity. Riverhead, New York (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, E.W.: Orientalism. Pantheon Books, New York (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimony, A:. Meeting of physics and metaphysics. Nature 291, 435 (1981)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Shimony, A.: Search for a Naturalistic World View, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1993)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sloss, R.R.: Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti. Bloomsbury, London (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolin, L.: Three Roads to Quantum Gravity. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (2000)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Spiro, P.J.: Afroyim: vaunting citizenship, presaging transnationality. In Martin, D.A., Schuck, P.H. (eds.) Immigration Stories, pp. 147–168. Foundation Press, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stapp, H.P.: The undivided universe: an ontological interpretation of quantum theory. Am. J. Phys. 62, 958–960 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Sudbery, T.: Hidden agenda. Nature 331, 26 (1988)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Werskey, G.: The Marxist critique of capitalist science: a history in three movements? Sci. Cult. 16(4), 397–461 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

    Olival Freire Junior

Authors
  1. Olival Freire Junior
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olival Freire Junior .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Freire Junior, O. (2019). The Quest for Compatibility Between the Causal Interpretation and the Wholeness Approach (1979–1992). In: David Bohm. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22715-9_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation