Science and exile: David Bohm, the cold war, and a new interpretation of quantum mechanics

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLIVAL FREIRE
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Foundations Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Causal Interpretation ◽  
David Bohm ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
American Physicist

ABSTRACT In the early 1950s the American physicist David Bohm (1917-1992) produced a new interpretation of quantum mechanics and had to flee from McCarthyism. Rejected at Princeton, he moved to Sãão Paulo. This article focuses on the reception of his early papers on the causal interpretation, his Brazilian exile, and the culture of physics surrounding the foundations of quantum mechanics. It weighs the strength of the Copenhagen interpretation, discusses the presentation of the foundations of quantum mechanics in the training of physicists, describes the results Bohm and his collaborators achieved. It also compares the reception of Bohm's ideas with that of Hugh Everett's interpretation. The cultural context of physics had a more significant influence on the reception of Bohm's ideas than the McCarthyist climate.

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS: THE ROLE OF EVIDENCE THEORY, QUANTUM SETS, AND MODAL LOGIC

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 29-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
GERMANO RESCONI ◽  
GEORGE J. KLIR ◽  
ELIANO PESSA
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Modal Logic ◽  
Set Theory ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Evidence Theory ◽  
Foundations Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Many Worlds ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Quantum Phenomena

Recognizing that syntactic and semantic structures of classical logic are not sufficient to understand the meaning of quantum phenomena, we propose in this paper a new interpretation of quantum mechanics based on evidence theory. The connection between these two theories is obtained through a new language, quantum set theory, built on a suggestion by J. Bell. Further, we give a modal logic interpretation of quantum mechanics and quantum set theory by using Kripke's semantics of modal logic based on the concept of possible worlds. This is grounded on previous work of a number of researchers (Resconi, Klir, Harmanec) who showed how to represent evidence theory and other uncertainty theories in terms of modal logic. Moreover, we also propose a reformulation of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in terms of Kripke's semantics. We thus show how three different theories — quantum mechanics, evidence theory, and modal logic — are interrelated. This opens, on one hand, the way to new applications of quantum mechanics within domains different from the traditional ones, and, on the other hand, the possibility of building new generalizations of quantum mechanics itself.

Cultural Context of Apollo Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Westwood ◽  
Beth Laura O’Leary ◽  
Milford Wayne Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Apollo Program ◽  
International Geophysical Year ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Space Race ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
International Geophysical

This chapter expands on the notion of Apollo Culture in greater detail, beginning with an historic context of the Cold War era. It takes a look at the Sputnik and Vanguard launches during the IGY (International Geophysical Year) Space Race, and explains how these political and social events of the mid-20th century set the stage for the rise and fall of the Apollo program- which required a combination of engineering, marketing, and scientific efforts by the federal government.

scholarly journals FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS: DECOHERENCE AND INTERPRETATION

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. 861-875 ◽  
Author(s):  
OLIMPIA LOMBARDI ◽  
JUAN SEBASTIAN ARDENGHI ◽  
SEBASTIAN FORTIN ◽  
MARTIN NARVAJA
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Foundations Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Decoherence ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Closed Systems

In this paper, we review Castagnino's contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics. First, we recall his work on quantum decoherence in closed systems, and the proposal of a general framework for decoherence from which the phenomenon acquires a conceptually clear meaning. Then, we introduce his contribution to the hard field of the interpretation of quantum mechanics: the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation solves many of the interpretive problems of the theory, and manifests its physical relevance in its application to many traditional models of the practice of physics. In the third part of this work we describe the ontological picture of the quantum world that emerges from the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation, stressing the philosophical step toward a deep understanding of the reference of the theory.

The “Apolitical” Opportunist

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Abrams Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Congress For Cultural Freedom ◽  
American Composers ◽  
American Liberalism ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cultural Freedom

This chapter examines composer and music critic Virgil Thomson, a man who liked to present himself as apolitical but who had close ties to the federal government and the secretly CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom. Thomson embraced the opportunities that the Cold War created. But unlike William Schuman and Howard Hanson, Thomson showed little interest in the politics motivating such programs. He willingly embraced and advanced the new interpretation of American exceptionalism, although he was not personally invested in it, because it created opportunities to gain greater status for American composers. Thomson’s various Cold War activities help us gain a fuller understanding of centrist American liberalism as it shaped musical life during the Cold War.

“The Most Beautiful Face of Socialism”

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-160
Author(s):  
Annette F. Timm
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Gold Medal ◽  
Successful Career ◽  
East German ◽  
Figure Skater ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Sexual Tension

East German figure skater Katarina Witt’s enormously successful career included gold-medal performances at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, turning her into an ambassador for her country and a worldwide media star. Backed by a regime that saw sport as a form of soft politics, Witt and her coach consciously cultivated her fame by increasing the sexual tension of her performances. Timm provides cultural context for the resulting collision between politics, sex, and sport. While certainly not a dupe of her handlers, relaxed East German attitudes toward nudity likely left Witt unable to appreciate how her image intertwined with popular culture images of the Cold War “honey pot.”

Propaganda leaflets and Cold War frames during the Korean War

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-264
Author(s):  
Seong Choul Hong
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Moral Judgement ◽  
Causal Interpretation ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

In the history of world wars, the Korean War (1950–1953) was not a forgotten war but the apogee of a propaganda war. By analyzing the contents of propaganda leaflets distributed during the Korean War, this study explored which frames were dominantly employed. The resulting findings were that the frames of ‘demoralization’ (25.7%) and ‘encouraging surrender’ (24.4%) were the most frequently used during the overall war period. Furthermore, the dominant frames varied depending upon the target audiences and language used. In terms of functional frames, the leaflet messages corresponded to definition and causal interpretation (22.8%), moral judgement (26.2%) and solution (49.9%). Interestingly, Chinese and North Korean leaflets preferred the imperialist frame to the Cold War frame even though the US and South Korean leaflets more heavily used the Cold War frame when they referred to foreign troops. Moreover, thematic frames (91.4%) were more widely used than episodic frames (8.6%) in the samples.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document