Article ID: CBB000831776

Paul Dirac and the Einstein-Bohr Debate (2008)

unapi

Although Dirac rarely participated in the interpretational debates over quantum theory, it is traditionally assumed that his views were aligned with Heisenberg and Bohr in the so-called Copenhagen-Göttingen camp. However, an unpublished---and apparently unknown---lecture of Dirac's reveals that this view is mistaken; in the famous debate between Einstein and Bohr, Dirac sided with Einstein. Surprisingly, Dirac believed that quantum mechanics was not complete, that the uncertainty principle would not survive in the future physics, and that a deterministic description of the microworld would be recovered. In this paper I show how we can make sense of this unpublished lecture in the context of Dirac's broader philosophy of quantum mechanics, and how our present understanding of Dirac's philosophical views must be revised.

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Authors & Contributors
Farouki, Nayla
Sussman, Nathaniel F.
Silva Neto, Climério Paulo da
Greco, Pietro
Rana, Adele La
Rasmus Jaksland
Concepts
Physics
Quantum mechanics
Philosophy of science
Controversies and disputes
Theoretical physics
Philosophy
Time Periods
20th century, early
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
Brussels (Belgium)
United States
Italy
Paris (France)
Institutions
Solvay Conferences
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