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The shaky game : Einstein, realism, and the quantum theory

Einstein's disagreement with quantum mechanics is often presented in a disparaging manner - as if he had somehow lost the plot. In The Shaky Game Arthur Fine shows that this is an unfair characterisation. In the first half of this set of essays he looks in detail at Einstein's philosophical views, how they changed with time, and how they related to what other people thought. In particular he examines how Einstein's views are reflected in the EPR paper. It's worth reading if you want see why Einstein's position wasn't such a dead end as is often claimed.

Sometimes the book does suffer a bit from the fact that it's a set of essays written at separate times. For instance, early on Fine mentions some of his ideas called 'Prism Models'. I expected him to expand on these ideas in the second half of the book, where he gets on to presenting his own ideas on the subject. However, instead he describes his 'Natural Ontological Attitude' - a way of looking at the realism-antirealism dispute. I also found that this discussion was rather philosophical for my taste - if you like such philosophising then you're likely to find plenty to interest you, but I prefer things to be a bit more definite.

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Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 0226249492
Salesrank: 367865
Weight:0.7 lbs

Published: 1996 University Of Chicago Press

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Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 0226249492
Salesrank: 837144
Weight:0.7 lbs

Published: 1996 Chicago University Press

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Paperback 224 pages
ISBN: 0226249492
Salesrank: 424264
Weight:0.7 lbs

Published: 1996 University Of Chicago Press

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Product Description
In this new edition, Arthur Fine looks at Einstein's philosophy of science and develops his own views on realism. A new Afterword discusses the reaction to Fine's own theory. "What really led Einstein . . . to renounce the new quantum order? For those interested in this question, this book is compulsory reading."—Harvey R. Brown, American Journal of Physics "Fine has successfully combined a historical account of Einstein's philosophical views on quantum mechanics and a discussion of some of the philosophical problems associated with the interpretation of quantum theory with a discussion of some of the contemporary questions concerning realism and antirealism. . . . Clear, thoughtful, [and] well-written."—Allan Franklin, Annals of Science "Attempts, from Einstein's published works and unpublished correspondence, to piece together a coherent picture of 'Einstein realism.' Especially illuminating are the letters between Einstein and fellow realist Schrödinger, as the latter was composing his famous 'Schrödinger-Cat' paper."—Nick Herbert, New Scientist "Beautifully clear. . . . Fine's analysis is penetrating, his own results original and important. . . . The book is a splendid combination of new ways to think about quantum mechanics, about realism, and about Einstein's views of both."—Nancy Cartwright, Isis

Product Description

In this new edition, Arthur Fine looks at Einstein's philosophy of science and develops his own views on realism. A new Afterword discusses the reaction to Fine's own theory.

"What really led Einstein . . . to renounce the new quantum order? For those interested in this question, this book is compulsory reading."—Harvey R. Brown, American Journal of Physics

"Fine has successfully combined a historical account of Einstein's philosophical views on quantum mechanics and a discussion of some of the philosophical problems associated with the interpretation of quantum theory with a discussion of some of the contemporary questions concerning realism and antirealism. . . . Clear, thoughtful, [and] well-written."—Allan Franklin, Annals of Science

"Attempts, from Einstein's published works and unpublished correspondence, to piece together a coherent picture of 'Einstein realism.' Especially illuminating are the letters between Einstein and fellow realist Schrödinger, as the latter was composing his famous 'Schrödinger-Cat' paper."—Nick Herbert, New Scientist

"Beautifully clear. . . . Fine's analysis is penetrating, his own results original and important. . . . The book is a splendid combination of new ways to think about quantum mechanics, about realism, and about Einstein's views of both."—Nancy Cartwright, Isis

Realism is dead! Long live realism! ***
Successive revolutionary developments in science have occasioned successive deaths, transformations, and revivals of realism, as firstly scientists and later laymen learn to see reality as new science describes it. In Concept of the Positron Hanson portrayed the reluctant acceptance of each successive theory's ontology as a progression from opaque black box to translucent gray box to transparent glass box. Such reflection on the history of science has yielded the contemporary pragmatist scientific realism, a realism that subordinates ontological claims to empirical criticism. But in his Shaky Game Fine says that realism is dead, and he advocates an alternative, his "natural ontological attitude" (NOA), which he calls a nonrealist commonsense epistemology (p.130). Heisenberg practiced scientific realism, when he imitated Einstein's realism in relativity theory beyond Einstein's gratuitous ontological constraints. But in his chapter "Is Scientific Realism Compatible with Quantum Physics?" Fine creates several realist interpretations by supplementing the quantum theory with correspondence characterizations not affirmed by the theory, which he says are needed by even a minimal realism. But Fine's minimal realism is not minimal, because these correspondences are added to and separable from the quantum theory itself. They enable no new empirical tests or new predictions, and thus no empirically warranted ontological claims. Today's pragmatic scientific realism is the thesis that a theory's ontology is described by the semantics defined by the context of universal discourse accepted as empirically warranted. This warranting language includes the empirically tested and nonfalsified theory and all its test-design language needed for measurement and/or other observation. It is otherwise silent, neither affirming nor denying additional ontological claims, although over time continuing experimental research will likely further enrich the theory's descriptive semantics and ontology. Readers are invited to Google my book History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science at my web site philsci with free downloads, and to view my other reviews. Thomas J. Hickey

Realism is dead! Long live realism! ***

Successive revolutionary developments in science have occasioned successive deaths, transformations, and revivals of realism, as firstly scientists and later laymen learn to see reality as new science describes it. In Concept of the Positron Hanson portrayed the reluctant acceptance of each successive theory's ontology as a progression from opaque black box to translucent gray box to transparent glass box. Such reflection on the history of science has yielded the contemporary pragmatist scientific realism, a realism that subordinates ontological claims to empirical criticism. But in his Shaky Game Fine says that realism is dead, and he advocates an alternative, his "natural ontological attitude" (NOA), which he calls a nonrealist commonsense epistemology (p.130).

Heisenberg practiced scientific realism, when he imitated Einstein's realism in relativity theory beyond Einstein's gratuitous ontological constraints. But in his chapter "Is Scientific Realism Compatible with Quantum Physics?" Fine creates several realist interpretations by supplementing the quantum theory with correspondence characterizations not affirmed by the theory, which he says are needed by even a minimal realism. But Fine's minimal realism is not minimal, because these correspondences are added to and separable from the quantum theory itself. They enable no new empirical tests or new predictions, and thus no empirically warranted ontological claims.

Today's pragmatic scientific realism is the thesis that a theory's ontology is described by the semantics defined by the context of universal discourse accepted as empirically warranted. This warranting language includes the empirically tested and nonfalsified theory and all its test-design language needed for measurement and/or other observation. It is otherwise silent, neither affirming nor denying additional ontological claims, although over time continuing experimental research will likely further enrich the theory's descriptive semantics and ontology. Readers are invited to Google my book History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science at my web site philsci with free downloads, and to view my other reviews.

Thomas J. Hickey

Excellent discussion of myths and realities of QM. ****
Put simply, Professor Fine knows what he's talking about. Written at a level which is understandable to the lay reader with a minimum of scientific background, but with attention to detail that excludes any trite simplification, the Shaky Game details Einstein's work on and objections to the quantum theory as it was hammered together (mostly by the likes of Heisenberg et al in Copenhagen) during the 1920s. Many misconceptions exist: such that Einstein was simply too old (in his 40s) at the time that these brilliant new thinkers (in their late 20s and 30s) were bringing together QM. Never mind that Einstein actually laid the groundwork for the theory in the 1910s and earlier, as well as working well into his golden years, Fine presents many other objections, mostly from Einstein's unpublished correspondance with other notable figures of the day. Fine also presents his and several other alternate interpretations designed to circumvent the various snags that QM invariably encounters, all with some degree of success. All in all, its a good read, and solid physics too, which is an important and all too often forgotten aspect of physics philosophy.

Excellent discussion of myths and realities of QM. ****

Put simply, Professor Fine knows what he's talking about. Written at a level which is understandable to the lay reader with a minimum of scientific background, but with attention to detail that excludes any trite simplification, the Shaky Game details Einstein's work on and objections to the quantum theory as it was hammered together (mostly by the likes of Heisenberg et al in Copenhagen) during the 1920s.

Many misconceptions exist: such that Einstein was simply too old (in his 40s) at the time that these brilliant new thinkers (in their late 20s and 30s) were bringing together QM. Never mind that Einstein actually laid the groundwork for the theory in the 1910s and earlier, as well as working well into his golden years, Fine presents many other objections, mostly from Einstein's unpublished correspondance with other notable figures of the day.

Fine also presents his and several other alternate interpretations designed to circumvent the various snags that QM invariably encounters, all with some degree of success. All in all, its a good read, and solid physics too, which is an important and all too often forgotten aspect of physics philosophy.