Abstract
In spite of the book’s acclaim, as the letters show, Bohm was not satisfied that he had dealt adequately with the philosophical issues from the standpoint of Marxism. In a relatively short period at Princeton, in the year before leaving for Brazil, he developed his alternative “hidden variable”, or “causal”, as it was later called, approach to quantum mechanics.
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Notes
- 1.
See Freire Jr. (2015), pp. 31–32 for more on this.
- 2.
- 3.
It was probably mainly this pragmatism and inherent conservatism that prevented Bohm from making a greater impact, though widespread anti-communism certainly also played a part. See Freire (2005) for a discussion on this issue.
- 4.
References to letters throughout this introduction are given in the form (X,Y, p. Z) where X is the chapter in Part 2, Y the letter number, and Z the page number.
- 5.
There are several references in the letters to Miriam Yevick in 1952 to the difficulties in writing a proposed book on philosophy. Then, in February 1953 (26, 96, p. 317), he tells Miriam he is experimenting with a number of ideas, which he may publish first as articles. A little later, he writes to Melba Phillips about a book gradually taking shape (18, 42, p. 163) and thanks her for efforts in trying to get a “paper” on causality published (18, 45, p. 169). In April 1954, he tells Miriam that his book has been accepted by Routledge and Kegan Paul (30, 116, p. 395), and in August (31, 120, p. 414), he has a six-page summary of his ideas on probability (not found in the archives). Finally, in October 1955 (19, 52, p. 180), he writes to Melba that the publishers have asked him to shorten the book, cutting out some technical material, and he also decides to cut out material on positivism. The revised version, with five chapters remaining, is probably the book in its present form.
- 6.
Bohm (1957).
- 7.
- 8.
Bohm (1957), Chap. 5, especially Sect. 12.
- 9.
Bohm (1957), Chap. 4, Sect. 3.
- 10.
As Bohm wrote in his second 1952 paper: “We should never expect to obtain a complete theory of this structure [the objectively real world of unlimited complexity]” (Bohm 1952b), and in 1953: “It is true that this model is somewhat crude, and that a deeper synthesis should be sought” (18, 43, p. 165).
- 11.
Bohm (1957), Chap. 4, Sect. 5.
- 12.
Though many writers appear to think it does. See Rosenblum and Kuttner (2011) for a recent example.
References
Bohm, D. (1952a). A suggested interpretation of the quantum theory in terms of hidden variables i. Physical Review, 85(2), 166–179.
Bohm, D. (1952b). A suggested interpretation of the quantum theory in terms of hidden variables ii. Physical Review, 85(2), 180–193.
Bohm, D. (1957). Causality and chance in modern physics (first ed., p. 1984). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (Second edition with new preface by Bohm).
Freire, O., Jr. (2005). Science and exile: David Bohm, the hot times of the Cold war, and his struggle for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics. Historical Studies on the Physical and Biological Sciences, 36(1). Also at http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508184.
Freire, O., Jr. (2015). The quantum dissidents: Rebuilding the foundations of quantum mechanics (1950–1990). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
Graham, L. R. (1971). Science and philosophy in the Soviet Union. London: Allen Lane.
Rosenblum, B., & Kuttner, F. (2011). Quantum enigma: Physics encounters consciousness. USA: Oxford University Press.
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Talbot, C. (2017). The Causal Interpretation and Causality and Chance. In: Talbot, C. (eds) David Bohm: Causality and Chance, Letters to Three Women. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55492-1_2
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