Quantum Theory, Historical Contingency and the "Copenhagen" Hegemony

量子力学发展史的考察 本世纪早期的力学表明， 这两个因素通常被认为是“内部”的基本影响 科学（如逻辑一致性，经验充分性， 生育力等）和“外部”的（如 专业竞争和一些人先前的形而上学承诺 主要科学家）。 任何一类因素都不能单独 解释为什么量子力学的“哥本哈根”解释， 由于其在微处理级别上的不可消除的不确定性， 是科学界一致选择的， 实际上排除了一个同样经验充分和丰富的 量子力学的因果版本， 微系统的确定性、连续性和可图示的演化 在时空背景下。 库欣教授认为， 存在一种可能的，事实上是合理的，时间上的重新排序， 在实际历史记录中某些高度偶然的事件 这可能导致接受一个确定性的， 因果量子理论排除了现在的“哥本哈根” 固有的非决定论的正统。 在这个研究项目中， 库欣教授正在探索 一个可行的竞争对手，以公认的立场，在科学和 科学探索这一替代方案的失败。 他认为 这就提出了一些实际问题，而不仅仅是原则上的问题， 科学家对公认的科学理论的不确定性， 知识可靠性的经验基础和问题 科学所提供的。

An examination of the history of the development of quantum mechanics in the early part of the present century shows the essential influence both of factors usually taken to be "internal" to science (such as logical consistency, empirical adequacy, fertility and the like) and of "external" ones (such as professional rivalries and prior metaphysical commitments of some of the major scientists). Neither class of factors alone can explain why the "Copenhagen" interpretation of quantum mechanics, with its ineliminable indeterminism at the level of microprocesses, was chosen by the consensus of the scientific community to the virtual exclusion of an equally empirically adequate and fertile causal version of quantum mechanics in which one has the deterministic, continuous and picturable evolution of microsystems in a space-time background. Professor Cushing argues that there exists a possible, and in fact plausible, temporal reordering of certain highly contingent events in the actual historical record that could have resulted in the acceptance of a deterministic, causal quantum theory to the exclusion of the present "Copenhagen" orthodoxy of inherent indeterminism. In this research project, Professor Cushing is exploring the ramifications of the existence of a viable rival to the accepted position in science and the failure of science to explore this alternative. He argues that this raises practical as opposed to just in-principle problems of the underdetermination of accepted scientific theories by an empirical basis and questions of the reliability of the knowledge with which science provides.