Causality and Chance in Modern Physics

by David Bohm

Book Overview

In this classic, David Bohm was the first to offer us his causal interpretation of the quantum theory. Causality and Chance in Modern Physicscontinues to make possible further insight into the meaning... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812210026
• ISBN13: 9780812210026
• Release Date: February 1971
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Required Reading for Physics Students!

I consider this book a gem.The forthright explanations of mechanistic systems, both deterministic and indeterministic, will help to awaken any student of physics as to the degree to which their world-view may not be as broad as they had imagined.The concerns raised about quantum mechanics are not trivial or extreme. And they are raised with deliberation and humility. Likewise, so are Bohm's suggested solutions.Finally, and most importantly I think, the argument for a world-view of physics that presumes - as the most scientifically (investigationally speaking) useful view to take - that the universe is comprised of an infinite number of levels of depth and complexity. Perhaps there are not an infinite number of levels of reality, but to presuppose there is opens the mind to want to investigate what they might be. Thus, supposing that QM defines and "explains" the 'bottom' of reality is first, not a logically strong position (just as Brownian motion formulas do not "explain" such motion as a fundamental aspect of nature) and secondly, such a view is scientifically inhibiting: supposing that QM *is* the bottom level of reality is rather silly in light of our historical knowledge of how humans have consistently misjudged the 'fundamental' aspects of nature in the past, and supposing we have reached it now via QM is a dubious claim. Further, even the issue of determinism vs. indeterminism may be a moot point: it may be at a lower level of reality, there is no such distinction - we may be seeing those two 'macroscopic' aspects of a more basic or inclusive feature of reality.If you want to be an original thinker in physics (or perhaps any science or philosophy), this book is a good starting point to help you realize how easily assumptions of the nature of reality slip past our awareness.

Defense of Hidden Variables

Bohm in this book attacks to Standard Interpretation of Quantum Physics. He starts with definition of Physical Theories, Laws of Nature, discusses Statistical Mechanics and goes into Deterministic Mechanicstic Philosophys and indeterminist Mechanistic Philosophy. He attackes Bohr and Heisenberg on their stand that Uncertainity Principal is the rule of the nature and foundation of Quantum Physics.Claims it is not conclusively proven as a rule and than argues that one can always find new Theory that can be fundemantally different from Uncertainity Principle, yet could explain nature better and yields current Quantum Physics as complimentarity. Although he claims that Heisenberg's claim is with no foundation, I believe he fails to prove that Nature can not be explained completely with limited number of laws and concepts.His argument against Heisenberg could be reversed and used against his own argument

David Bohm and philosophy of physics

This book is a bold and original investigation of the philosophical foundations of physical science. David Bohm, as a superb physicist with a major textbook on quantum mechanics, is qualified for what he undertakes to do in this book. The book is devoted partly to a detailed exposition of "mechanical philosophy". Bohm describes in detail the sources and implications of this philosophy as it appears in classical mechanics, statistical physics, and quantum mechanics. Bohm argues that mechanical philosophy is not a necessary consequence of the formalism or of the well-known success of these theories. It is one possible, albeit widespread, interpretation. According to Bohm, the mechanical philosophy is a result of assuming the validity of a scientific theory in all possible situations and contexts. Bohm shows how other more reasonable interpretations of specific theories can be developed. Bohm's own interpretation involves various levels, described by qualitatively distinct theories. These may be related but are not necessarily reducable to a basic level. In particular, Bohm discusses quantum mechanics from this point of view. This serves as an introduction to what Bohm elsewhere turned into a technical research programme. The book is pervaded by a sense of Bohm's deep and unified vision of the physical world.