• DOI:10.1016/J.SHPSB.2003.11.002
Corpus ID: 121840335

Open or closed? Dirac, Heisenberg, and the relation between classical and quantum mechanics

@article{Bokulich2004OpenOC,
  title={Open or closed? Dirac, Heisenberg, and the relation between classical and quantum mechanics},
  author={A. Bokulich},
  journal={Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics},
  year={2004},
  volume={35},
  pages={377-396}
}

A. Bokulich

Published 2004

Physics

Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

View via Publisher

philsci-archive.pitt.edu

Save to Library

Create Alert

Cite

Launch Research Feed

This paper describes a long-standing, though little-known, debate between Paul Dirac and Werner Heisenberg over the nature of scientific methodology, theory change, and intertheoretic relations. Following Heisenberg’s terminology, their disagreements can be summarized as a debate over whether the classical and quantum theories are “open” or “closed.” A close examination of this debate sheds new light on the philosophical views of two of the great founders of quantum theory.