Quantum Measurement and the Philosophy of Physics | David Albert and Tim Maudlin

Robinson's Podcast #210 - David Albert & Tim Maudlin: Niels Bohr, Measurement, & Quantum Mechanics

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the JBI. This is David’s seventh appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 189 with Barry Loewer to talk about the Mentaculus, their joint project on the foundations of statistical mechanics. This is Tim’s sixth appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 188 with Sheldon Goldstein to discuss Bohmian mechanics. Tim and David last joined Robinson together for episode 67, which gave an overview of the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, David, and Tim talk about the measurement problem, the role of philosophy in physics, various thought experiments, like Schrödinger’s cat and Wigner’s friend, and Niels Bohr’s effects both on quantum mechanics and the philosophy of science. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.

[kusha]

I am 71 from Iran, not a physicist but very much interested. When i was younger i was a leftist and there was this guy B. Keyvan, Mohammad Taghi Borumand who was a member of Tudeh party, translated and wrote many booklets on Marxism and Theory of Knowledge and all other topics that left is interested in. One of the texts he had translated and said that Bohr's view on quantum mechanics were influenced by his bourgeois tendencies and of course we believed all of that.
Later as i moved to US and read more popular physics i realized that the issue is much much deeper than something that can be explained by a bourgeois background and tendencies. And i moved to believe that what B. Keyvan translated was totally baseless.
Thanks to my further reading of this subject i have found out for several years at least 5 years that indeed some of those concerns that were discussed by B. Keyvan were indeed correct, although not the way he had described. Thanks for this very interesting discussion. I enjoyed it a LOT!