Simultaneity and uncertainty: physical issues or epistemological analysis?

Speaker:
Prof. dr. Vincenzo Fano, University of Urbino.
Date:
Tuesday 4th June, 2002

Einstein's 1916 popular exposition of relativity favours a misunderstanding of the simultaneity criticism. For it presents the latter as an epistemological analysis, in spite of a physical phenomenon. In his 1927 paper Heisenberg applies a similar argument to quantum mechanics, maintaining that there are a priori reasons, connected with the experimental possibilities, to introduce the commutation relations. On the contrary, the uncertainty is a consequence of the wave-particle dualism and it is not possible to interpret it in perturbative terms, but only presupposing quantum theory in general. Like simultaneity, uncertainty is a physical issue and not an epistemological analysis.


Last updated: Friday, 07-Jun-2002 11:30:00 CEST