Leon Rosenfeld Synthese Library

BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE VOLUME XXI SELECTED PAPERS OF LEON ROSENFELD SYNTHESE LIBRARY STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Managing Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Academy of Finland and Stanford University Editors: ROBER T S. COHEN, Boston University DONALD DAVIDSON, University of Chicago GABRIEL NUCHELMANS, University of Leyden WESLEY C. SALMON, University of Arizona VOLUME 100 LEON ROSENFELD (1904·1974) BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE EDITED BY ROBERT S. COHEN AND MARX W. WARTOFSKY VOLUME XXI SELECTED PAPERS OF LEON ROSENFELD Edited by ROBERT S. COHEN AND JOHN J. ST ACHEL D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY DORDRECHT: HOLLAND I BOSTON: U.S.A. LONDON:ENGLAND Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rosenfeld, Leon, 1904--1974. Selected papers of Leon Rosenfeld. (Boston studies in the philosophy of science; v. 21) (Synthese library; v. 1(0) 'Bibliography of the writings of Leon Rosenfeld': p. Includes index. I. Physics-History-Collected works. 2. Physics-Philosophy Collected works. 3. Physics-Collected works. 4. Science-History Collected works. I. Cohen, Robert Sonne. II. Stachel,J.J. III. Title. IV. Series. Q174.B67 vol. 21 [QC7] 50lS [5301.09] 77-17620 ISBN-13: 978-90-277-0652-2 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-9349-5 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-9349-5 The translation of Article 1 in Part 11 was prepared by Prof Aage Petersen and edited by RSC and JJS. The translations of Articles 3. 7. 11. 15. 16. 17. and 20 of Part 1.5. 15 and 18 ~l Part II. 1. 2, and 3 ~l Part Ill. and 1 ~l Part IV were prepared by the AAA Linguistic Service ( Boston). Betty Krikorian and Jean Rel'ol and edited by RSC and JJS. Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17, Dordrecht, Holland Sold and distributed in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Inc. Lincoln Building, 160 Old Derby Street, Hingham, Mass. 02043, U.S.A. All Rights Reserved Copyright © 1979 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland and copyrightholders as specified on appropriate pages within Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1979 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner EDITORIAL PREFACE The decision to undertake this volume was made in 1971 at Lake Como during the Varenna summer school ofthe Italian Physical Society, where Professor Leon Rosenfeld was lecturing on the history of quantum theory. We had long been struck by the unique blend of epistemological, histori cal and social concerns in his work on the foundations and development of physics, and decided to approach him there with the idea of publishing a collection of his papers. He responded enthusiastically, and agreed to help us select the papers; furthermore, he also agreed to write a lengthy introduction and to comment separately on those papers that he felt needed critical re-evaluation in the light of his current views. For he was still vigorously engaged in both theoretical investigations of, and critical reflections on the foundations of theoretical physics. We certainly did not conceive of the volume as a memorial to a 'living saint', but rather more practically, as a useful tool to place in the hands of fellow workers and students engaged in wrestling with these difficult problems. All too sadly, fate has added a memorial aspect to our labors. We agreed that in order to make this book most useful for the con temporary community of physicists and philosophers, we should trans late all non-English items into English. Selection of the items for inclusion proceeded by correspondence and at the time of Professor Rosenfeld's visit to Boston University in 1973 had reached a stage that enabled us to draw up a nearly final list with him; that list is the basis for this volume. Unfortunately, he had not set to work on the introduction and critical notes at the time of his death. Professor Stefan Rozental, his close friend and co-worker, has kindly supplied us with an introductory tribute; but he joins us in the sense of loss to the volume due to the absence of Rosen feld's own editorial contributions. VIII EDITORIAL PREFACE II Naturally, we cannot dream of filling that gap in these prefatory com ments. We should just like to include a few words on some unique features of Professor Rosenfeld's work, which we feel will be of significance to physicists and philosophers, and especially to students. At the time when Professor Rosenfeld started his scientific career, the number of physicists who concerned themselves with social issues, let alone those who saw any organic relationship between their creative acti vity and their social concerns, was small. Today, of course, under the impact of the great leap forward in the industrialization of science, and of so many scientific and technological developments upon all aspects of social life - and indeed of possible social death - this number has grown considerably. But often this concern, even among some scientists, takes the form of a rejection of science, or at any rate a rejection of any claim that science gives us a truthful picture of the world. How to reconcile an understanding of the social role of science, and likewise of the role of social forces in the development of science, with a concept of objective scientific truth has become an issue of concern to a growing number of scientists, young and old. Rosenfeld's lifelong example of just such an attempt can serve as an inspiration and example. III Professor Rosenfeld was a Marxist. He made no bones about this, as may be seen from the many references to Marx and Engels in this volume, as well as the integral spirit in which he approached such problems as the origins of thermodynamics or the history of electromagnetic theory, to give but two examples. His Marxism was of an undogmatic variety, how ever, at a time when dogmatism reigned supreme in the dominant currents of several 'official' Marxisms. His work thus provides a valuable example of the attempt by a critical intellect to utilize the categories of Marxist thought in discussing not only the social and historical aspects of the development of physics, but also conceptual evolution within various branches of physics themselves. Indeed, it is precisely in his early refusal to see a sharp separation between these 'external' and 'internal' moments in the evolution of the sciences that we may see a distinctive feature of EDITORIAL PREFACE IX Rosenfeld's approach, which he owes to the Marxist tradition, a tradition which his own specific, detailed studies have materially developed and enriched. This by no means implies that only the committed Marxist can benefit from the reading of those papers most directly concerned with social and historical matters. For while he approaches the issues in each case from his own viewpoint, Rosenfeld does not come armed with a bag of pre conceived answers: rather, he displays a fine sense for the uniqueness of the historical event, the role of individual traits and how they blend with, or rub against. the grain of the historical development. We believe readers will time and again find themselves charmed by the concise characteriza tions of persons and situations, as well as informed about the way they fit into a larger picture of scientific and social development through the clash of individual viewpoints. The Marxist scholar will in addition find num erous models for the tactful and sympathetic application of his method to concrete situations. He will also find some tart comments on what Rosenfeld found to be dogmatic or vulgar Marxist misapplications, notably in the review of Bernal. IV Rosenfeld is probably best known to the public of physics for his work on the foundations of quantum theory, especially for his critical development and defense of Bohr's viewpoint. Without going into any discussion ofthe issues (on which Rosenfeld speaks for himself eloquently enough through out this volume), it may be helpful to recall that this viewpoint has been, and to some extent still is, under attack by some orthodox Marxists and others as an idealist, or positivist distortion; while at the same time it has been 'defended', under the umbrella labelled the 'Copenhagen' inter pretation, by a wide variety of champions who clearly were in fact philo sophical idealists. Rosenfeld engaged in a running battle on both fronts. First, he tries to show that Bohr's viewpoint was basically materialist, and that these attacks from the 'left' were being launched from the standpoint of a dogmatically simple or mechanical 'materialism' - which is no true materialism. Second, he argued that views expressed by such 'defenders' of Copenhagen as Heisenberg were really attempts to saddle quantum mechanics with a Platonic ideology. Obviously the debates about the x EDITORIAL PREFACE philosophical significance of quantum theory are not over; but those who want to understand some of the genuine issues in these debates must reckon with Rosenfeld's views. v Rosenfeld was not, and did not claim to be a philosopher, nor was he a historian. However, he undertook investigations into the philosophical and historical aspects of physics because of two deep motivations. First, he was convinced that a rigorous understanding of the development of ideas would profoundly clarify his own understanding of physics, and that of his contemporaries. He never went so far as to claim that such historical and philosophical studies would solve current problems - only clarify, which was precious enough in view of the perplexing obscurity of the crises in 20th-century physics.

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