Pauli versus Heisenberg: A case study of the heuristic role of philosophy [Book Review]

Foundations of Science 4 (4):405-426 (1999)
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Abstract

This article analyses an episode in the earlyhistory of quantum theory: the controversy betweenPauli and Heisenberg about the anomalous Zeemaneffect, which was a main stumbling block for the oldquantum theory of Bohr. It is argued that theindividual philosophical views of both Pauli andHeisenberg directed their attempts to solve theanomaly and decisively influenced the solutions theyproposed. The results of this case study arecompared with the assertions of four theories ofscientific change, namely those of Kuhn, Lakatos,Laudan and Giere.

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Henk W. de Regt
Radboud University

Citations of this work

Spacetime Visualisation and the Intelligibility of Physical Theories.Henk W. de Regt - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (2):243-265.
Spacetime Visualisation and the Intelligibility of Physical Theories.Henk W. de Regt - 2001 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (2):243-265.
To envision a new particle or change an existing law? Hypothesis formation and anomaly resolution for the curious case of the β decay spectrum.Tjerk Gauderis - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 45:27-45.

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References found in this work

Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes.Imre Lakatos - 1970 - In Imre Lakatos & Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press. pp. 91-196.
The philosophy of Niels Bohr: the framework of complementarity.Henry J. Folse - 1985 - New York, N.Y.: Sole distributors for the U.S.A. and Canada, Elsevier Science Pub. Co..
Progress or Rationality? The Prospects for Normative Naturalism.Larry Laudan - 1987 - American Philosophical Quarterly 24 (1):19 - 31.
Normative naturalism.Larry Laudan - 1990 - Philosophy of Science 57 (1):44-59.

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