The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics

The present monograph is devoted to the principal problems of quantum mechanics and is based on the conception first stated in my course on 'Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics'. The scope and purpose of the above course did not allow some principal questions to be brought out as fully as they deserved, and besides, some important points were only very recently developed to a sufficient extent. This refers especially to the analysis of the action of the measuring instrument, whose dual role as an analyser of a quantum ensemble and as a detector of individual events was insufficiently elucidated. The reader will find that the present monograph is concerned more with theoretical physics than with philosophy. However, I have never separated Weltanschauung from science (and particularly theoretical physics) so that the philosophical implications are also discussed, justi­ fying publication in the philosophical series. In conclusion, I should like to thank the publisher and the translator, whose initiative and effort have made it possible for the book to reach the English-speaking reader.

I. The Illusion of Determinism.- II. Classical Mechanics and Causality.- III. A Gibbs Ensemble.- IV. A Quantum Ensemble.- V. The Density Matrix.- VI. Causality in Quantum Mechanics.- VII. Is The Wave Function Avoidable?.- VIII. Is The Wave Function Measurable?.- IX. Deduction of the Structure of a Micro-Object from Particle Scattering.- X. The Inverse Problem in Quantum Mechanics.- XI. A Measuring Instrument Is a Macroscopic Device.- XII. Scheme of a Macroscopic Instrument.- XIII. The Theory of Measurement.- XIV. The Wave Function as the Observer¿s Notebook.- XV. Is Quantum Mechanics a Complete Theory?.- XVI. Latent Parameters.- XVII. Can a Particle Have an Individual History?.- Selected Bibliography.