Skip to main content
Log in

Bohm's Metaphors, Causality, and the Quantum Potential

  • Published:
Erkenntnis Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

David Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics yields a quantum potential, Q. In his early work, the effects of Q are understood in causal terms as acting through a real (quantum) field which pushes particles around. In his later work (with Basil Hiley), the causal understanding of Q appears to have been abandoned. The purpose of this paper is to understand how the use of certain metaphors leads Bohm away from a causal treatment of Q, and to evaluate the use of those metaphors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Bohm, D.: 1952, ‘A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of 'Hidden' Variables, I and II’, Physical Review 85, 166-193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: 1980, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London and New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D.: 1987, ‘Chapter Two' in B. J. Hiley and F. David Peat (eds.), Quantum Implications, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London and New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D. and B. J. Hiley: 1993, The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London and New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D. and J.-P. Vigier: 1954, ‘Model of the Causal Interpretations of Quantum Theory in Terms of a Fluid with Irregular Fluctuations’, Physical Review 96, 208-216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: 1913, ‘On the Constitutions of Atoms and Molecules’, Philosophical Magazine 26, 1-25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, N.: 1957, Foundations of Science: The Philosophy of Theory and Experiment, Dover Publications, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cushing, J. T.: 1982, ‘Models and Methodologies in Current Theoretical High-Energy Physics’, Synthese 50, 5-101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cushing, J. T.: 1990, Theory Construction and Selection in Modern Physics: The S Matrix, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cushing, J. T.: 1994, Quantum Mechanics: Historical Contingency and the Copenhagen Hegemony, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dürr, D., S. Goldstein, and N. Zanghi: 1990, ‘On a Realistic Theory for Quantum Physics’, in S. Albeverio, G. Casati, U. Cattaneo, D. Merlini, and R. Moresi (eds.), Stochastic Processes, Physics and Geometry, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dürr, D., S. Goldstein, and N. Zanghi: 1992a, ‘Quantum Equilibrium and the Origin of Absolute Uncertainty’, Journal of Statistical Physics 67, 843-907.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dürr, D., S. Goldstein, and N. Zanghi: 1992b, ‘Quantum Chaos, Classical Randomness, and Bohmian Mechanics’, Journal of Statistical Physics 68, 843-907.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dürr, D., S. Goldstein, and N. Zanghi: 1993, ‘A Global Equilibrium as the Foundation of Quantum Randomness’, Foundations of Physics 23, 721-738.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse, M. B.: 1966, Models and Analogies in Science, University of Notre Dame Press, Indiana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse, M. B.: 1974, The Structure of Scientific Inference, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maudlin, T.: 1994, Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity: Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics, Blackwell, Oxford UK and Cambridge USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, E.: 1966, ‘Derivation of the Schrodinger Equation from Newtonian Mechanics’, Physical Review 150, 1079-1085.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, E.: 1967, Dynamical Theories of Brownian Motion, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, A.: 1980, ‘Exemplars and Analogies: A Comment on Crane's Study of Kuhnian Paradigms in High Energy Physics' and 'Reply to Crane’, Social Studies of Science 10, 497-502, 507-508.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, A.: 1984, Constructing Quarks: A Sociological History of Particle Physics, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentini, A.: 1991a, ‘Signal-Locality, Uncertainty, and the Subquantum H-Theorem. I’, Physics Letters A 156, 5-11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valentini, A.: 1991b, ‘Signal-Locality, Uncertainty, and the Subquantum H-Theorem, II’, Physics Letters A 158, 1-8.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Guarini, M. Bohm's Metaphors, Causality, and the Quantum Potential. Erkenntnis 59, 77–95 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023941005266

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023941005266

Keywords

Navigation