PHIL/HPS 93872 Historical Foundations of the Quantum Theory
Spring 2009
Don Howard
University of Notre Dame

Syllabus

Required Readings

Presentation Schedule

Martin Klein. “Planck, Entropy, and Quanta, 1901-1906.”

Martin Klein. “Einstein’s First Paper on Quanta.”

Max Jammer. “Regularities in Line Spectra” and “Bohr’s Theory of the Hydrogen Atom.”

Max Jammer. “The Older Quantum Theory.”

Max Jammer. “The Transition to Quantum Mechanics.”

Don Howard. “‘Nicht sein kann was nicht sein darf,’ or the Prehistory of EPR, 19091935.”

Max Jammer. “The Formation of Quantum Mechanics.”

James T. Cushing. “Early Attempts at Causal Theories: A Stillborn Program.”

Niels Bohr. “The Quantum Postulate and the Recent Development of Atomic Theory.”

Mara Beller. “The Dialogical Birth of Bohr’s Complementarity.”

Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, Nathan Rosen. “Can Quantum-mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Consdiered Complete?”

Niels Bohr. “Can Quantum-mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Consdiered Complete?”

John von Neumann. “The Measruing Process.”

Fritz London and Edmond Bauer. “The Theory of Observation in Quantum Mechanics.”

Silvan S. Schweber. “The Birth of Quantum Field Theory” and “The 1930s.”

L. E. Ballentine. “The Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.”

David Bohm. “A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of 'Hidden' Variables. I and II.”
Part I.     Part II.

James T. Cushing. “A Background Essay.”

Hugh Everett. “‘Relative State’ Formulation of Quantum Mechanics.”

Wojciech Zurek. “Decoherence and the Transition from Quantum to Classical— Revisited.”

Wojciech Zurek. “Decoherence, Einselection, and the Quantum Origins of the Classical.”

"Whether Designated Matter is the Principle of Individuation in Material Substances."

Recommended Readings

1927 Solvay Movie