Abstract
Erwin Schrödinger whose hundredth birthday we celebrated not long ago was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 1933. He was honored “for the discovery of new fruitful fonns of atomic theory” that he had made several years earlier and first published in his famous papers “Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem.”1 The community of physicists decided to call the basic dynamic equation of quantum mechanics the “Schrödinger equation”. The view. associated with this equation. that quantum mechanics is a theory of the temporal changes of state in a physical system is known as the “Schrödinger picture”. All this seems to show that Schrödinger was deeply involved with the new atomic theory - the most important advancement in physics in this century. On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that he did not accept the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics. And he was not the only one to find himself in this situation. Already Planck and Einstein were awarded the Nobel prize for achievements marking the very beginnings of quantum theory. Yet both men were not satisfied with the interpretation of a theory which was viewed as definitive by the majority of physicists. This coincidence indicates that something peculiar was going on - something transcending physics proper but still belonging to it in a broader sense.
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Notes
AbhandlWlgen zur Wellenmechanik. Leipzig: Joh. Ambr. Barth 1927; 2 ed. 1928. (Articles quoted without the author are by Schrödinger.)
A. Shimony, Reflections on the Philosophy of Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrödinger. In: Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis. Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum. ed. R. S. Cohen and L. Laudan. Dordrecht: Reidel 1983. p. 209–21. quoted from p. 215.
Nature and the Greeks. Cambridge: CUP 1954. quoted from p. 15.
„Are there Quantum Jumps?“ 4.478-502. quoted from p. 481. (Works quoted in this manner are taken from Gesammelte Abhandlungen, ed. by Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1984. The first figure refers to the volume, the next one(s) to the pages.)
op. cit., no. 3, p. 34.
Das Gesetz der Zufälle. 4.316-7. quoted from p. 317.
B. Bertotti, “he later work of E. Schrödinger”, Stud. Histo. Phil.Sci.16 (1985) 83–100, quoted from p. 85.
Meine Weltansicht, Vienna: Paul Zsolnay 1961.
ibid., p. 115 ff.; also op. cit. no. 7, p. 94.
op. cit. no. 8, p. 175.
op. cit. no. 8, p. 175.
op. cit. no. 3; Die Besonderheit des Weltbilds der Naturwissenschaft, 4.409 - 53.
Locus classicus is H. Hertz, Die Prinzipien der Mechanik. Joh.Ambr. Barth: Leipzig 1894. In addition to Schrödinger’s papers referred to no. 12, see also: Der erkenntnistheoretische Wert physikalischer Modellvorstellungen (1928),4.288-94.
op. cit., no. 12, p. 425.
op. cit., no. 12, p. 443.
Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik, 4.484-501, quoted from p. 486.
Might perhaps energy be a merely statistical concept? 1.502-10. This idea, formed already early by Schrödinger, belongs to a consistent wave mechanical interpretation of the microphysical world.
M. Smoluchovski, “Über den Begriff des Zufalls und den Ursprung der Wahrscheinlichkeitsgesetze in der Physik,” Naturwissenschaften 6 (1918), pp. 253–63; Max Born, “Ist die klassische Mechanik tatsächlich deterministisch?” Phys.Blätter 11 (1955) pp. 49-54; Max Born and D. J. Hooton, “Statistical Dynamics of Multiple Periodic Systems,” Zeitschrift für Physik 142 (1955), pp. 201-18.
F. Exner, Vorlesungen über die physikalischen Grundlagen der Naturwissenschaften. Deuticke: Wien 1919. part IV, esp. pp. 691 ff. Was ist ein Naturgesetz? 4.295-7. I see Forman’s description of the development, in which he includes also Weyl, Reichenbach and others, as being a turn towards acausality as misleading. See P. Forman, “Weimar Culture, Causality and Quantum Theory. 1918-1927,” in: Hist. Stud. in the Phys. Scis. 3 (1971) 1–115, esp. III.3.
Energieaustausch nach der Wellenmechanik, 3.267-79, quoted from p. 279. See also: Antrittsrede, 4.303-7; Das Gesetz der Zufälle, 4.316-7; Die Wandlung des physikalischen Weltbegriffs (1930). In: Was ist ein Naturgesetz? Oldenbourg: Munich 1987. p. 18-26, esp. p. 24; Über Indeterminismus in der Physik (together with: Ist die Naturwissenschaft milieubedingt?) Joh.Ambr.Barth: Leipzig 1932. 1-24.
Science and Humanism. Physics in our Time. Cambridge University Press 1961. p. 27.
„Quantisierung als Eigenwertsproblem II“ (1926),3.98-136. Quoted from p. 117f. Italics are mine.
op. cit. no. 17, p. 509.
For arecent vindication see J. Dorling: „Schrödinger’s original interpretation of the Schrödinger equation: a rescue attempt.„ In: Schrödinger. Centenary celebration of a polymath. Ed. by C. W. Kilmister. CUP 1987. 10-40. See also L. Wesseis: Schrödinger’s Interpretation of Wave Mechanics. Dissertation Indiana University at Bloomington, 1975.
It is not always clear which view Schrödinger is attacking. He seldom uses names or gives references. On the other hand, the views of the members of the Copenhagen school diverge. See op. cit. in no. 2 and E. Scheibe, „Die Kopenhagener Schule“ In:Klassiker der Naturphilosophie. ed. by G. Böhme. Beck: Munich 1989, pp. 374-92.
op. cit., no. 21, p. 51.
op. cit., no. 20 („Die Wandlung des physikalischen Weltbegriffs“), p. 26. This leCture, given in Munich 1930, was not published until after Schrödinger’s death.
A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, N. Rosen, “Can the Quantum-meehanieal Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?” Phys. Rev. 47 (1935), pp. 777–80. Schrödinger’s reaetion was the paper referred to in no. 16.
“Discussion of Probability Relations between Separated Systems,” 1.424-32, quoted from p. 424. See also: Probability Relations between Separated Systems, 1.433–9; The philosophy of Experiment, 4.558-68.
op. cit. no. 16, p. 489.
op. cit. no. 21, p. 51f.
See op. cit. no. 17, pp. 507ff.
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Scheibe, E. (1992). Erwin Schrödinger And The Philosophy of The Physicists. In: Götschl, J. (eds) Erwin Schrödinger’s World View. Theory and Decision Library, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2428-7_4
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