Abstract
The chapter is dedicated to the philosophy of science, which was developed by L.I. Mandelstam. It is shown that this philosophy can be summed up under the heading “operationalism”; its comparison with the paradigmatic operationalism of Percy Bridgman is undertaken and its German positivist roots are indicated.
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Notes
- 1.
Sonin’s book [297] is cited here. Sonin also wrote a big book concerned with the accusations of some Soviet scientists of “cosmopolitism” in the Cold war years [298]. In the latter there is no excursion to the Alexandrov 1952 lecture. As a matter of fact A.D. Alexandrov’s attack on Mandelstam’s operationalism requires a more detailed analysis. It is clear that A.D. Alexandrov, who was a famous topologist writing on the philosophy of space, could not accept operationalism. However, it is not clear why he preferred such a form of his attack (Alexandrov’s lecture dedicated to Mandelstam’s “Complete Work”).
References
L.I. Mandelstam’s Writings
L.I. Mandelstam, Complete Works. 5 volumes (Izd. AN SSSR, Moscow, 1947–1955). Volumes 4 and 5 have been reprinted as the following books
L.I. Mandelstam, Lektsii po optike, teorii otnositel’nosti i kvantovoi mekhanike (Lectures on Optics, the Theory of Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics) (Nauka, Moscow, 1972). 408 p.
Other Writings
Akademik L.I. Mandelstam. K 100-letiu so dnia rozhdenia (Academician L.I. Mandelstam. By His Centenary) (Nauka, Moscow, 1979). 312 p.
A.A. Andronov, L.I. Mandelstam i teoria kolebanii (Mandelstam and the theory of oscillations), in Akademik L.I. Mandelstam. K 100-letiu so dnia rozhdenia, pp. 98–131.
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P. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics (Macmillan, New York, 1927). 228 p.
P. Bridgman, The Nature of Physical Theory (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1936). 138 p.
P. Bridgman, The Intelligent Individual and Society (Macmillan, New York, 1938). 324 p.
P. Bridgman, The Nature of Some of Our Physical Concepts (Philosophical library, New York, 1952). 64 p.
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G.S. Gorelik, L.I. Mandelstam and the doctrine of resonance, in Academic Mandelstam (Academician L.I. Mandelstam. By His Centenary) (Nauka, Moscow, 1979), pp. 138–157
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E. Mach, The Principles of Physical Optics (Dover, New York, 1926). 178 p.
V.V. Migulin, Otdelenie radiofiziki i elektroniki (Department of radio physics and electronics). Istor. Metodolol. Estestv. Nauk 7, 165–179 (1968)
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A.S. Sonin, “Fizicheskii idealizm”. Istoria odnoi ideologicheskoi kompanii (“Physical Idealism”. The History of an Ideological Campaign) (Izd. fiz. mat. lit., Moscow, 1994). 222 p.
A.S. Sonin, Bor’ba s kosmopolitizmom (The Struggle Against Cosmopolitism in the USSR) (Nauka, Moscow, 2011). 663 p.
I.E. Tamm, O rabotakh Mandelstama v oblasti teoreticheskoi fiziki (On Mandelstam’s work in theoretical physics). Izv. Akad Nauk SSSR 9(1–2), 56–60 (1945). Reprinted in Akademik L.I. Mandelstam. K 100-letiu so dnia rozhdenia, pp. 131–138
I.E. Tamm, Selected Papers, ed. by B.M. Bolotovskii, V.Ya. Frenkel (Springer, Berlin, 1991)
R. von Mises, Kleines Lehrbuch des Positivismus. Einführung in die empiristishe Wissenschaftaufsauffassung (Den Haag, 1939). XII+467 p.
R. von Mises, Positivism. A Study in Human Understanding (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1951)
I. von Neumann, Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin, 1932). 262 p.
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Pechenkin, A. (2014). Mandelstam’s Operationalism. In: Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00572-0_13
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