Dialectical materialism and quantum physics : the unpublished 1957 lectures of David Bohm in Israel /
This is the story of David Bohm's hitherto unpublished notes, uncovered from a series of lectures on quantum theory and dialectical materialism, given in Israel in 1957, to a group of Marxist physicists from the Hashomer Hatsair (young guard) movement.
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
[2025]
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
Table of Contents:
- Cover
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Dedication page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the stage
- 1. The road to rebellion against the quantum orthodoxy
- 2. Correspondence with Albert Einstein
- 3. From Hegel to Marxist literature and dialectical materialism
- 4. Causality and Chance in Modern Physics
- 5. The Colston Symposium
- 6. Quantum theory in light of dialectical materialism
- 7. The new perspective opened up by Bohm
- 8. Bohm in Israel
- 2 Commentaries on Bohm's lectures: A framework of dialectical thinking
- Part I Philosophical questions raised in a new approach to the quantum theory
- 1. Opposites in classical physics (chapters 3.1-3.2)
- a. Continuous vs. discrete
- b. Causality vs. chance
- 2. First discussion of the notion of the infinity of nature (chapter 3.3)
- a. Criticism of the metaphysical position
- b. The meaning of the infinity of nature
- c. Back to causality and chance
- d. The relation between levels
- 3. Quantum theory-the notion of a subquantum level (chapters 3.4-3.8)
- 4. Criticism of the Copenhagen point of view (chapters 3.9-3.11)
- 5. Subject and object (chapter 3.12)
- 6. Identity and difference (chapter 3.13)
- 7. Dialectical logic in quantum mechanics (chapter 3.14)
- Part II General philosophical problems in light of the infinity of nature and the unity of opposites
- 8. The grand picture: Introduction to the lectures of Part II (chapter 3.15)
- 9. Dialectical formulation of the laws of nature (chapters 3.16-3.17)
- a. The universal, the particular, and the individual according to Hegel
- b. The universal, the particular, and the individual according to Bohm
- c. Universals and the levels of law
- 10. Concrete and abstract properties (chapter 3.18-3.19)
- a. Inner and outer
- b. Concrete and abstract universals
- 11. The theory of knowledge: between thinking and being (chapter 3.20)
- a. A brief history of Western philosophy of knowledge
- b. Bohm's analysis of the problem of knowledge
- 12. Systematic formulation of the unity of opposites and infinity of nature (chapter 3.21)
- a. The role of practice
- b. Bohm's quest for secure knowledge
- c. The distinction between reasoning and understanding
- d. One last time: the basic problem of epistemology
- 3 Lecture Notes (LN)
- Part I Philosophical Questions Raised in a New Approach to the Quantum Theory
- 1. Continuous vs. Discrete
- 2. Causality vs. Chance
- 3. Alternative to Metaphysical Position-Infinity of Nature
- QUANTUM THEORY
- [4] Experimental Foundation and Fundamental Theoretical Principles
- [5] Indeterminacy Principle
- [6] Brownian Motion Analogy
- [7] Heisenberg's Analysis of Process of Measurement
- [8] Interpretation in Terms of a Deeper Level
- [9] The Indeterminacy Principle-Usual Interpretation
- [10] The Principle of Complementarity
- [11] Criticism of Principle of Complementarity