Erwin Schrodinger : Philosophy and the birth of quantum mechanics

Description

Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961), a Nobel prize winner in 1933, created one of the earliest forms of the quantum theory - wave mechanics - whose key concept is universally referred to as the «Schrodinger equation». He was one of the major contributors to the debate on the meaning of quantum mechanics, and posterity will surely remember how he captured the essence of the quantum measurement problem in the striking thought experiment known as «the paradox of Schrodinger’s cat». With the important exception of his book What is life?, which had a considerable impact on the first generation of molecular biologists, his other contributions are poorly known. His philosophy, disregarded since deliberately separated from his physics, is just beginning to attract the attention it deserves. His important papers on statistical mechanics, on general relativity, on cosmology, and on unified field theories (he even wrote on the physiology of sensation), hardly saw the light of day. The purpose of this collection is to high-light the relation between Schrodinger’s less well-known research and his thoughts on quantum mechanics. Some space is devoted to contemporary extensions of his work, and in particular on current echoes of his interpretation of quantum mechanics.«This collection should be a welcome addition for historians and philosophers of quantum mechanics. The breath and scope of topics covered will interest scholars with a wide variety of backgrounds.»Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences - 1996contents: Some Elements of Biography - Philosophy - History.