Physics and reality.
Physics and reality.
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DOI：
10.1016/s0016-0032(36)91047-5
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发表时间：
1936-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Einstein, A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Einstein, A
物理学构成了一个处于进化状态的逻辑思维系统，其基础不能通过任何归纳方法从经历过的经验中蒸馏而来，而只能通过自由发明来获得。系统的辩护(真理内容)在于根据感觉经验证明所产生的定理的有用性，其中后者与前者的关系只能直观地理解。进化正朝着逻辑基础日益简单化的方向发展。为了进一步接近这一目标，我们必须下定决心接受这样一个事实，即逻辑基础越来越远离经验事实，我们的思想从基本基础到与感官经验相关的这些由此产生的定理的道路变得越来越艰难和漫长。我们的目标是尽可能简短地概述基本概念的发展，它们依赖于经验事实，并依赖于朝着系统内部完善的目标而发生的冲突。在我看来，今天的情况必须通过这些考虑得到启发。(历史图式呈现不可避免地带有个人色彩。)我试图展示身体对象、空间、主观和客观时间的概念是如何相互联系的，以及如何与经验的性质联系在一起的。在经典力学中，空间和时间的概念是独立的。身体对象的概念在基础上被物质点的概念所取代，这意味着力学从根本上变得原子化。当人们试图把力学作为所有物理学的基础时，光和电就会产生不可逾越的困难。因此，我们引出了电学的场论，后来又试图将物理学完全建立在场的概念上(在试图与经典力学妥协之后)。这种尝试导致了相对论(空间和时间的概念演变为具有度规结构的连续体的概念)。此外，我试图证明，在我看来，为什么量子理论似乎不太可能为物理学提供可用的基础：如果一个人试图将理论上的量子描述视为对单个物理系统或事件的完整描述，就会陷入矛盾。另一方面，到目前为止，场论无法解释物质的分子结构和量子现象。然而，它表明，相信场论不能用它的方法给出这些问题的解决方案的大意在于偏见。
Physics constitutes a logical system of thought which is in a state of evolution, and whose basis cannot be obtained through distillation by any inductive method from the experiences lived through, but which can only be attained by free invention. The justification (truth content) of the system rests in the proof of usefulness of the resulting theorems on the basis of sense experiences, where the relations of the latter to the former can only be comprehended intuitively. Evolution is going on in the direction of increasing simplicity of the logical basis. In order further to approach this goal, we must make up our mind to accept the fact that the logical basis departs more and more from the facts of experience, and that the path of our thought from the fundamental basis to these resulting theorems, which correlate with sense experiences, becomes continually harder and longer.Our aim has been to sketch, as briefly as possible, the development of the fundamental concepts in their dependence upon the facts of experience and upon the strife towards the goal of internal perfection of the system. Today's state of affairs had to be illuminated by these considerations, as they appear to me. (It is unavoidable that historic schematic representation is of a personal color.)I try to demonstrate how the concepts of bodily objects, space, subjective and objective time, are connected with one another and with the nature of the experience. In classical mechanics the concepts of space and time become independent. The concept of the bodily object is replaced in the foundations by the concept of the material point, by which means mechanics becomes fundamentally atomistic. Light and electricity produce insurmountable difficulties when one attempts to make mechanics the basis of all physics. We are thus led to the field theory of electricity, and, later on to the attempt to base physics entirely upon the concept of the field (after an attempted compromise with classical mechanics). This attempt leads to the theory of relativity (evolution of the notion of space and time into that of the continuum with metric structure).I try to demonstrate, furthermore, why in my opinion the quantum theory does not seem likely to be able to produce a usable foundation for physics: one becomes involved in contradictions if one tries to consider the theoretical quantum description as acompletedescription of the individual physical system or happening.On the other hand, up to the present time, the field theory is unable to give an explanation of the molecular structure of matter and of quantum phenomena. It is shown, however, that the conviction to the effect that the field theory is unable to give, by its methods, a solution of these problems rests upon prejudice.