[mscp] Ashworth Program Koinonia Seminars (Sept 27th)

[y.yeoh at pgrad.unimelb.edu.au]

Ashworth Program Koinonia Seminars
Sept 27th, 5pm,
Moot Court Room, Old Quad
(University of Melbourne)

"WERNER HEISENBERG AND CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY"
-- Kristian Camilleri --

The development of the modern theory of quantum mechanics in the 1920s has been the subject of detailed examination by historians and philosophers of science. However, the philosophical understanding of quantum mechanics that emerged  during this time has remained the source of much confusion among scholars. Much of the reason for this confusion stems from the tendency to align many of the thinkers with the analytic tradition in philosophy, in particular with the rise of logical positivism. However, on closer inspection this proves to be an inaccurate picture of the philosophy. In this paper, I will examine the philosophical work of the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, and situate him in the context of the split between analytic and continental philosophy in the German-speaking world in the late 1920s and 1930s. Heisenberg's thought will be shown to have more in common with certain threads of continental philosophy than with the positivists, with whom he is commonly assoc!
 iated.