Jan 6, 2025
Heisenberg and Potentia: Insight into Quantum Reality, or ‘Passing the Buck’?
- 14:00 to 16:00
- Seminar
- Max Planck Research Group (Final Theory Program)
- Gary Graham
On my reading of Heisenberg, he employed the Aristotelian notion of ‘potentia’ (which he amended slightly) in order to address two problems: the ‘failure of the Kantian critique’, and a class of conceptual problems in quantum mechanics. Doing so, however, generates a number of epistemological and ontological difficulties, which are discussed. Not least of these is the ‘Interaction Problem’, an issue usually encountered in arguments about Dualism. Finally, Heisenberg’s use of potentia is considered in the context of the Idealism/Realism debate, and the question is asked: Does his proposal leave us any better off?
Contact and Registration
Link to the Zoom-Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/94690790127 Meeting-ID: 946 9079 0127 no registration required. For more information contact Kseniia Mohelsky officeblum@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
About This Series
The seminar series of the Research Group “Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program” runs once a month, usually on a Monday at 14:00 in the seminar room of the Villa (Harnackstraße 5). The talks deal primarily with the history, philosophy, and foundations of modern (post-WWII) physics or with wider epistemological questions related to the work of the group. There are no pre-circulated papers.