Léon Rosenfeld's Marxist defense of complementarity

Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences

Volumn 37, Issue SUPPL., 2007, Pages 3-34

  Jacobsen, Anja Skaar ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Complementarity; Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics; Dialectical materialism; Dialecticalmaterialism; L on Rosenfeld; Marxism; Niels Bohr; Oidealism; Philosophy of quantum mechanics

Indexed keywords

EID: 35349001218     PISSN: 08909997     EISSN: 15338355     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/hsps.2007.37.S.3     Document Type: Article

References (284)

1. Probably the first reference in the literature to the Copenhagen Interpretation or rather to the "Kopenhagener Geist der Quantentheorie ... which has directed the entire development of modern atomic physics", is in Werner Heisenberg's Chicago lectures of 1929. Heisenberg, The physical principles of the quantum theory (Chicago, 1930).
2. Calling it an interpretation, and thereby indicating that there might be other interpretations, seems to occur for the first time in Heisenberg, "The development of the interpretation of the quantum theory," in W. Pauli, L. Rosenfeld, and V. Weisskopf, eds., Niels Bohr and the development of physics (London, 1955), 12-29. However, Heisenberg might have taken it from Soviet critics of Bohr's views in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as D.I. Blokhintsev and A.D. Alexandrov.
3. Catherine Chevalley, "Why do we find Bohr obscure?," D. Greenberger, W.L. Reiter, and A. Zeilinger, eds., Epistemological and experimental perspectives on quantum physics (Dordrecht, 1999), 59-73, on 62-63.
4. J.L. Heilbron, "The earliest missionaries of the Copenhagen spirit," Revue d'histoire des sciences, 38:3-4 (1985), 195-230. However, Rosenfeld's role has been illuminated by Olival Freire Jr., who has dealt with the disputes between Rosenfeld and Max Born, Eugene Wigner, and David Bohm, among others.
5. Freire, "Quantum controversy and Marxism", Historia scientiarum, 7:2 (1997), 137-152
6. Freire, "Science, philosophy and politics in the fifties. On Max Born's unpublished paper entitled 'Dialectical materialism and modern physics", Historia scientiarum, 10:3 (2001), 248-254
7. Freire, "Science and exile: David Bohm, the cold war, and a new interpretation of quantum mechanics", HSPS, 36:1 (2005), 1-34
8. Freire, "Orthodoxy and heterodoxy in the research on the foundations of quantum physics: E.P. Wigner's case", to appear in Boaventura de Sousa Santos, ed., Cognitive justice in a global world: Prudent knowledge for a decent life (Lanham, 2007).
9. Apart from Freire's publications the most important papers on Rosenfeld are still Robert S. Cohen and John J. Stachel, "Editorial preface", SP, vii-xii,
10. and Stefan Rozental, "Introduction", ibid., xxiii-xxx.
11. Lars Becker-Larsen, interview with Bryce De Witt, 10 Apr 2003, tape 10. See also Freire's publications (ref. 2).
12. Pauli to Rosenfeld, 28 Sep 1954, PSC, 2 (1953/4), 769.
13. About complementarity, see section 2 below.
14. Christian Møller, "Léon Rosenfeld. 14 august 1904-23 marts 1974," Tale i Videnskabernes Selskabs møde den 18. oktober 1974, Oversigt over Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Virksomhed (1974/5), 1-8.
15. Stefan Rozental, "Léon Rosenfeld. 14 august 1904-23 marts 1974, Fysisk Tidsskrift, 73:3 (1975), 99-105.
16. Rozental, "Rosenfeld, Léon", Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (3rd edn., 16 vols., Copenhagen, 1982), 12, 312-313
17. Aage Bohr, obituary of Léon Rosenfeld, Berlingske Tidende, 26 Mar 1974.
18. Jean-Pierre Swings, "In memorian Léon Rosenfeld", Académie Royale de Belgique, Bulletin de la Classe de Sciences, 60 (1974), 656-662
19. Jean Serpe, "Léon Rosenfeld 1904-1974", Florilège des Science en Belgique II, Académie Royale de Belgique, Classe des Sciences, (1980), 389-402
20. Gerald E. Brown, "Léon Rosenfeld 14 August 1904-23 March 1974," NORDITA publications, 556/557 (1974), i-viii.
21. Brown briefly mentions Rosenfeld's engagement in social and political matters on i, viii. In the following biographical papers, Rosenfeld's Marxism is treated: Ilya Prigogine, "Léon Rosenfeld et les fondements de la physique moderne," Extrait du Bulletin de l'Académie royale de Belgique (Classe des sciences) (1974), 841-854
22. Cohen and Stachel (ref. 2)
23. Rozental (ref. 2).
24. Heilbron (ref. 2).
25. Thomas S. Kuhn and J.L. Heilbron, interview with Léon Rosenfeld, 3 sessions: SHQP, session 1, 9, 22 Jul 1963.
26. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, e-mail with Andrée Rosenfeld (daughter of Léon Rosenfeld), 15 May 2004.
27. Rozental, "Léon Rosenfeld," Dansk (ref. 6).
28. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), 5-8.
29. Ibid., 18.
30. Spencer R. Weart, Scientists in power (Cambridge, 1979).
31. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), 16.
32. Rosenfeld, "Jacques Solomon [1959]," in SP, 297-301
33. Martha Cecilia Bustamante, "Jacques Solomon (1908-1942): Profil d'un physicien théoricien dans la France des années trente", Revue d'histoire des sciences et de leurs applications, 50:1-2 (1997), 49-87
34. Mary Jo Nye, "Science and socialism: The case of Jean Perrin in the Third Republic", French historical studies, 9:1 (1975), 141-169
35. Weart (ref. 10), 3-36.
36. See correspondence between Bohr and Jacques Solomon, BSC.
37. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), 17.
38. Rosenfeld to Einstein, 25 Apr 1928
39. Einstein to Rosenfeld, 3 May 1928; Albert Einstein Archives, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem.
40. The first Copenhagen conference was an informal gathering of about 30 physicists from Denmark and abroad, at which the participants briefly presented their field of interest and discussed recent developments in physics. The meeting proved such a success that a tradition was established. Peter Robertson, The early years: The Niels Bohr Institute 1921-1930 (Copenhagen, 1979), 136-138.
41. Rosenfeld, "My initiation", SP, xxxi-xxxiv; originally published in Journal of jocular physics, 2:7 (1945). Journal of jocular physics was a humorous and satirical endeavor that spiced the daily work at the Niels Bohr Institute.
42. Some of the papers in the journal, among them a few by Rosenfeld, were later published elsewhere. Rosenfeld, "Quantum theory in 1929: Recollections from the first Copenhagen Conference", SP, 302-312, on 304; originally published in (Copenhagen, 1971)
43. Kuhn and Heilborn (ref. 8), session 2, 19 Jul 1963, 5-6.
44. Ibid., session 1, 10-11, session 2, 13-14.
45. Aage Bohr (ref. 6)
46. Møller (ref. 6), 3
47. Jørgen Kalckar "Niels Bohr and his youngest disciples", Niels Bohr: His life and work as seen by his friends and colleagues (Amsterdam, 1967), 227-239, on 230; originally published in Danish: Niels Bohr: Hans liv og virke fortalt af en kreds af venner og medarbejdere (Copenhagen, 1964).
48. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, "The complementarity between the collective and the individual: Rosenfeld and cold war history of science," forthcoming in Minerva.
49. Paul Forman, "Weimar culture, causality and the quantum theory, 1918-1927: Adaptation by German physicists and mathematicians to a hostile intellectual environment," HSPS, 3 (1971), 1-115
50. Forman, "Kausalität, Anschaulichkeit, and Individualität or how cultural values prescribed the character and the lessons ascribed to quantum mechanics," in Nico Stehr and Volker Meja, eds., Society and knowledge: Contemporary perspectives in the sociology of knowledge and science (2nd. rev. edn. [1984], New Brunswick, NJ, 2005), 357-371.
51. RP, "Political 1945-47" in "Utrecht 1940-47*"
52. "Lettres de Hollande" in the short-lived leftist Bruxelles journal L'Éclair (Oct-Dec 1945 and Jan 1946)
53. "Letters to the editor", Manchester guardian (Aug-Sep, 1947)
54. Rosenfeld, "Dynamisch denken in de wetenschap", De Vrije Katheder, 7:42 (1948), 668.
55. De Vrije Katheder was founded as an underground paper during the war by communist students in Amsterdam. See Fenna van den Burg, De Vrije Katheder, 1945-1950. Een platform van communisten en nietcommunisten (Amsterdam, 1983), 376.
56. Rosenfeld to James Gerald Crowther, 31 Oct 1945, J.G. Crowther Archive (Brighton), University of Sussex Library, Special Collections.
57. Rudolf Peierls, Bird of passage: Recollections of a physicist (Princeton, 1985), 60.
58. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, interview with Roberto Salmeron, 23 June 2004
59. Jacobsen, interview with Jørgen Kalckar, 10 Jan 2005.
60. Prigogine (ref. 6), 845.
61. For the early Russian context of debates about Marxist philosophy and science, see Paul R. Josephson, Physics and politics in revolutionary Russia (Berkeley, 1991), 204, 226, 249
62. David Joravsky, Soviet Marxism and natural science 1917-1932 (London, 1961).
63. It may have been Otto Kofoed-Hansen who was professor of physics at the Danish Risø National Laboratory erected in 1956-58; Henry Nielsen, Keld Nielsen, Flemming Petersen, and Hans Siggaard Jensen, Til samfundets tarv - Forskningscenter Risø historie (Roskilde, 1998).
64. Rosenfeld to Koefoed, 20 Feb 1957, RP, "Correspondance générale 1955-58" in "Epistemology."
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Josephson (ref. 24), 204, 226, 249-250.
69. Loren Graham, Science, philosophy, and human behavior in the Soviet Union (New York, 1987), 25-26, 34-35.
70. Lenin's book has its own complex Russian context connected with the political tumult prior to the Bolsheviks coming to power. However, the doctrines and positions upheld in the book, most notably against Ernst Mach, were taken at face value by Lenin's later followers, not seen in this historical context. See Joravsky (ref. 24), 3-44.
71. Rosenfeld, "Strife about complementarity", SP (1979), 465-483, on 482
72. originally published in Science progress, 163 (1953), 393-410. It is unclear if Rosenfeld was aware of the debates about dialectical materialism taking place in the Soviet Union at the time the book appeared, but his remark echoes some of the views about Lenin's position presented at that time.
73. See Joravsky (ref. 24). Rosenfeld's use of the word "metaphysical" refers to Engels's meaning of it, i.e., the opposite of dynamical or dialectical.
74. Draft of letter from Rosenfeld to Born, 10 Apr 1957, RP, "Correspondance particulière".
75. Ibid.
76. Anton Pannekoek, Lenin as philosopher (1st edn. [1938], London, 1974)
77. Rosenfeld to Pauli, 6 Apr 1952, PSC, 1 (1950-52), 598-600, on 599
78. Rosenfeld to Stephen G. Brush, 7 Oct 1966, RP, "History of science: XIXe siècle".
79. Vladimir I. Lenin, Materialism and empirio-criticism: Critical comments on a reactionary philosophy (Moscow, 1970).
80. Rosenfeld, "The epistemological conflict between Einstein and Bohr," SP, 517-521, on 518.
81. This paper is more or less the same as "Professor Einstein's dilemma," The listener, 44 (1950), 823
82. published in French in Revue de métaphysique et de morale, 67 (1962), 147-151, and subsequently in Russian, German, and English.
83. Rosenfeld, "Berkeley redivivus," a review of Werner Heisenberg's Natural law and the structure of matter, in SP, 686-687
84. originally published in Nature, 228:5270 (1970), 479
85. Pannekoek (ref. 34), 35-36.
86. Rosenfeld to Pauli (ref. 34), 599.
87. According to his children, he was not. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, e-mail with Jean Rosenfeld (Rosenfeld's son), 12 Jan 2005.
88. Born to Rosenfeld, 28 Mar 1957, RP, "Correspondance particulière."
89. Pauli to Rosenfeld (ref. 4)
90. Alex Callinicos, Trotskyism (Milton Keynes, 1990), 2-3
91. Helena Sheehan, Marxism and the philosophy of science: A critical history (Atlantic Highlights, NJ, 1985), 103
92. Joravsky (ref. 24), 97-100
93. Rosenfeld, "Complementarity and statistics I and II," Part I [1958], SP, 484-494, on 494
94. originally published in Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger, 31 (1958), 9-10.
95. Jacobsen (ref. 19)
96. John D. Bernal, Science in history (London, 1954).
97. Rosenfeld, "Social and individual aspects of the development of science", SP 902-910
98. originally published in Danish in Fysisk tidsskrift, 69 (1971), 4-5, 97-106 and dedicated "To Igor Tamm, as a token of old friendship." Copy of letter from Rosenfeld to Victor J. Frenkel, 26 May 1971, RP.
99. Vladimir A. Fock to Rosenfeld, 7 Apr 1956
100. RP, "Epistemology: Correspondance générale 1955-58"
101. Rosenfeld to Fock, 28 Oct and 30 Dec 1959, 30 Mar and 25 Apr 1960, BSC.
102. Niels Bohr, "The quantum postulate and the recent development of atomic theory," Nature, suppl. (14 Apr 1928), 580-590, on 581.
103. Bohr, Atomic theory and the description of nature (Cambridge, 1934) (reprinted in 1961)
104. originally published in Danish in the Yearbook of Copenhagen University for 1929
105. Bohr, "Light and life", Nature, 131 (1933), 421-23, 457-459
106. Bohr, "Causality and complementarity", Philosophy of science, 4 (1937), 289-298.
107. These two publications are reprinted in Niels Bohr collected works (12 vols., Amsterdam, 1999), 10, David Favrholdt, ed., 27-48.
108. Bohr and Rosenfeld, "Zur Frage der Messbarkeit der elektromagnetischen Feldgrössen," Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Mathematisk-fysiske Meddelser, 12:8 (1933); reprinted in Niels Bohr collected works, 7, Jørgen Kalckar, ed., 55-121, translated in English in RP, 357-400, which is reprinted in Niels Bohr collected works, 7, 123-166.
109. See, for example, Rosenfeld, "Dynamisch denken" (ref. 21)
110. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31)
111. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of the idea of causality," SP, 446-464.
112. Originally Rosenfeld's inaugural lecture in Utrecht and published in Dutch in 1942, Inaugurale rede Universiteit Utrecht (Amsterdam, 1942), 1-27
113. published in French, Mémories de la Société Royale des Sciences Liège, 6 (1942), 59-87
114. and in Norwegian, Fra Fysikkens Verden, 49 (1944), 49-61, 113-122
115. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of Oersted's scientific concepts," SP, 178-192
116. originally published in French in Oversigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger (1970-71), 1-17.
117. Ref. 26.
118. See also Rosenfeld, "Niels Bohr's contribution to epistemology," SP 522-535, on 532-533
119. originally published in Physics today, 16:10 (1963), 47-52, 54.
120. See, for example, Rosenfeld, "Foundations of quantum theory and complementarity," SP, 503-516
121. originally published in Nature, 190 (1961), 384-388.
122. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), session 3, 22 Jul 1963, 12.
123. Rosenfeld, "The conception of the meson field. Some reminiscences and epistemological comments," SP, 327-334, on 330
124. originally published in Progress of theoretical physics supplement, 41 (1968), C1-C7, 330.
125. See also Rosenfeld to Pauli (ref. 34), in which Rosenfeld maintains that the dialectical relation between idealism and materialism is not symmetric, but that a materialistic standpoint is more favorable from his point of view.
126. Rosenfeld, "Matter and force after fifty years of quantum theory," in SP, 247-265, on 263-264
127. originally published in S.K. Runcorn, ed., Physics in the sixties (London, 1963), 1-22
128. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 466
129. Rosenfeld, "The conception" (ref. 49), 330
130. review of M. Jammer, The conceptual development of quantum mechanics (New York, 1966),
131. in Nuclear physics, A126 (1969), 696.
132. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 466.
133. See also draft of letter from Rosenfeld to Lancelot Law Whyte, 17 Mar 1958, RP, "Correspondance générale 1955-58" in "Epistemology".
134. Born to Rosenfeld, 21 and 28 Jan 1953, RP, "Correspondance particulière."
135. Heisenberg, The physicist's conception of nature (London, 1958), 15-16
136. originally published in German, Der Naturbild der heutigen Physik (Reinbeck, 1955).
137. Ibid., 15.
138. Rosenfeld, "Berkeley redivivus" (ref. 36), 687.
139. Rosenfeld, "Misunderstandings about the foundations of quantum theory," SP, 495-502, 501
140. originally published in Observation and interpretation, S. Körner, ed., Colston papers, 9 (London, 1957), 41-61.
141. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 466-471.
142. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of the idea of causality" (ref. 46), 459.
143. Rosenfeld, "Niels Bohr in the thirties: Consolidation and extension of the conception of complementarity," in Niels Bohr: His life and work as seen by his friends and colleagues (Amsterdam, 1967), 114-136, on 116-118
144. originally published in Danish (Copenhagen, 1964)
145. Rosenfeld, "Niels Bohr. Naar aanleiding van zijn 60e verjaardag," De Vrije Katheder, 5:28 (Oct 1945)
146. Rosenfeld, "Strife(ref. 31), 481.
147. Rosenfeld, "Introduction" to Niels Bohr, On the constitution of atoms and molecules (Copenhagen, 1963), xi-liv, on xlii;
148. Rosenfeld, "The velocity of light and the evolution of electrodynamics," SP, 134-177, on 136
149. originally published in Nuovo cimento, 4, suppl. (1956), 1630-1669
150. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of the idea of causality" (ref. 46), 456.
151. Christian Møller, "Nogle erindringer fra livet på Bohrs institut i sidste halvdel af tyverne," in Niels Bohr: Et mindeskrift (Copenhagen, 1963), 54-64, on 61-62, special issue of Fysisk Tidsskrift, 60 (1962).
152. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 472
153. Rosenfeld, "Erkendelsesteori "på naturvidenskabeligt grundlag," in Festskrift til Harald Wergelands 60årsdag, NORDITA publications (1972), 319-326, 320
154. originally published in Physica Norvegica, 5:3-4 (1971).
155. Draft of letter from Rosenfeld to Adolf Grümbaum, 21 May 1957, RP, "Correspondance générale 1955-58" in "Epistemology." Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), session 3, 6.
156. See also draft of letter from Rosenfeld to Bohm, 6 Dec 1966: "I certainly have never played the game of putting a materialist label on him [Bohr]. I leave that to the high-priests of Marxist-Leninist theology," RP, "Measuring process, Nov. 1966-Jan. 1967" in "Epistemology."
157. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 473
158. Rosenfeld, "The epistemological conflict" (ref. 36), 521
159. Rosenfeld to Pauli (ref. 34), 598-599.
160. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 466.
161. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, interview with Salmeron (ref. 22). Salmeron to Freire, 18 Sep 1998; copy of letter from Rosenfeld to Martin Strauss, 2 Nov 1956, NBA.
162. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), session 3, 11.
163. V.A. Fock, "Quantum mechanics and dialectical materialism: Comments," Slavic review, 25:3 (Sep 1966), 411-413, on 412.
164. Freire, "Quantum controversy" (ref. 2), 138-139, 147.
165. Loren Graham, "Complementarity and Marxism-Leninism," in A.P. French and P.J. Kennedy, eds., Niels Bohr: A centenary volume (Cambridge, 1985), 332-341
166. Graham, "Quantum mechanics and dialectical materialism," Slavic review, 25:3 (Sep 1966), 381-410.
167. Fock also held views similar to Rosenfeld's on the distinction between dialectical and mechanistic materialism. Fock (ref. 67).
168. See, for example, Rosenfeld, "Berkeley redivivus" (ref. 36).
169. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of the idea of causality" (ref. 46), 461.
170. Heilbron (ref. 2), 226-227.
171. Rosenfeld to Bohr, 1 Feb 1947, BSC.
172. Matthew Stanley, Practical mystic: Religion, science, and A.S. Eddington (Chicago, 2007)
173. Arthur S. Eddington, The nature of the physical world (6th Impression, Cambridge, 1930)
174. William Ralph Inge, God and the astronomers (London, 1934).
175. Rosenfeld to Bohr, 31 May 1949, BSC. Rosenfeld discussed Jeans' and Eddington's views on many occasions in these years. See, for example, Rosenfeld to Johannes Martinus Burgers, Utrecht, 1 Feb 1947, Burgers's papers in Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam.
176. For the equally heated philosophical discussions about modern physics that took place in the 1920s and 1930s in the Soviet Union, see Josephson (ref. 24)
177. Joravsky (ref. 24)
178. Andrew Cross, "The crisis in physics: Dialectical materialism and quantum theory," Social studies of science, 21 (1991), 735-759.
179. The political "games" in which scholars were enrolled in the postwar milieu is described in Alexei B. Kojevnikov, Stalin's great science: The times and adventures of Soviet physicists (London, 2004), 188-207.
180. Graham (ref. 30), 328.
181. Ibid., 329-343
182. Cross (ref. 75).
183. Chevalley (ref. 1), 62-63.
184. Graham (ref. 30), 335-336, 338-340, 346.
185. "Diskussion om Sovjetfilosofi i Moskva Juni 1947," Tiden: Tidsskrift for aktivt Demokrati, 9 (1947-48), 127-134.
186. A. Maksimov, "Lenins kamp mod den 'fysiske' idealisme," Tiden, 10 (1949), 253-268.
187. Ibid., 265-266.
188. Ib Nørlund, "Om hjáernespind," Tiden: Tidsskrift for aktivt Demokrati, 10:8 (1949), 314-316.
189. Pihl to Rosenfeld, 6 Oct 1948, RP, "History of science 1: (1948-51) (Manchester)." However, their viewpoints differed considerably; Pihl was a strong opponent of dialectial materialism as employed in both science and history of science.
190. Jacobsen (ref. 19).
191. Pihl to Rosenfeld, 18 Dec 1949, RP, "History of science 1: (1948-51) (Manchester)."
192. Karl O. Andersen, "Det komplementære," Dialog, 1 (1950), 456-457, on 457
193. C.E. Walsøe, Den ny Naturvidenskab og vor gamle Kristentro (Copenhagen, 1938), 25-26, 34
194. Nørlund, "Om videnskabens ansvar," Dialog, 5:2 (1955), 10-25, on 10.
195. Nørlund, "Videnskab i krise. Om "komplementaritetsteorierne" i den moderne fysik - og andre steder," Dialog, 4:1 (Feb 1954), 13-27.
196. This particular number of Dialog with Nørlund's contribution soon sold out completely. Pihl, "Om den dialektiske materialisme," Dialog, 5:1 (1955), 19-27, on 19. In 1992 Bohr's assistant since World War II, Stefan Rozental, jotted down some comments about the dispute. Rozental, manuscript, 3 pp. (1992), Rozental Papers, NBA. To Rozental's regret, no consensus was reached between Pihl and Nørlund. In this connection Rozental mentioned the Soviet physicist Fock as a Marxist scientist who combined dialectical materialism with Bohr's views. It is quite strange that Rozental did not mention the views of his close friend Rosenfeld. After all, Rozental had written the introduction to Rosenfeld's Selected papers, which was published in 1979 and in which Rozental briefly dealt with Rosenfeld's Marxist views. Thus he must have known Rosenfeld's viewpoints quite well.
197. Max Jammer, The philosophy of quantum mechanics: The interpretations of quantum mechanics in historical perspective (New York, 1974), 250-251.
198. Ibid., 250
199. Paul A. Schilpp, ed., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-scientist (Evanston, IL, 1949).
200. Dialectica, 2:3-4, 1948.
201. David Bohm, "A suggested interpretation of the quantum theory in terms of 'hidden' variables. I," Physical review, 85:2 (1952), 166-193.
202. James T. Cushing, Quantum mechanics: Historical contingency and the Copenhagen hegemony (Chicago, 1994), 152
203. Russell Olwell, "Physical isolation and marginalization in physics: David Bohm's cold war exile," Isis, 90:4 (1999), 738-756
204. Christian Forstner, "The early history of David Bohm's quantum mechanics through the perspective of Ludwik Fleck's thought-collectives," forthcoming in Minerva;
205. Friere, "Science and exile" (ref. 2).
206. Copy of letter from Bohm to A. Loinger, 10 Nov 1966, RP, "Measuring process, Nov. 1966-Jan. 1967" in "Epistemology"
207. Freire, "Science and exile" (ref. 2).
208. Ibid.
209. Rosenfeld, "Complementarity" (ref. 40), 486.
210. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 465-483, on 473, 482 note 1
211. Rosenfeld, "Complementarity" (ref. 40), 493.
212. A glaring example of Rosenfeld's uncompromising style when reprimanding younger physicists is his correspondence in the 1960s about the proposal by the young physicist Klaus S. Tausk to consider alternative interpretations of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. See RP, "Measuring process. Sept. 1966-Oct. 1966" in "Epistemology 3"
213. Osvaldo Pessoa, Jr., Olival Freire, Jr., and Alexis De Greiff, "The Tausk controversy on the foundations of quantum mechanics: Physics, philosophy, and politics," forthcoming in Physics in perspective.
214. See RP, "Correspondance générale" in "Epistemology." 100.
215. Rosenfeld, "L'évidence de la complémentarité," in André George, ed., Louis de Broglie: Physicien et penseur (Paris, 1953), 43-65, on 55-56.
216. Bohm to Rosenfeld, [n.d.], RP, "Correspondance générale, Volume de Broglie (1952). Strife about complementarity (1953)" in "Epistemology."
217. Guido Beck to Rosenfeld, May 1952, RP, "Correspondance générale, Volume de Broglie (1952). Strife about complementarity (1953)" in "Epistemology" E.H.S. Burhop to Rosenfeld, 5 May 1952, RP.
218. Rosenfeld to Bohr, 31 May 1949, BSC.
219. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of the idea of causality" (ref. 46), 446, 449-450.
220. Ibid., 459.
221. Rosenfeld counted de Broglie as pro-Bohr and complementarity on this occasion. De Broglie had abandoned his own theory of pilot wawes from 1927 until the work by Bohm and Vigier prompted him to take up the idea again in 1953. Rosenfeld to Pauli, 20 Mar 1952, PSC, Part 1, 587-588, on 588.
222. Graham (ref 30), 366. Joravsky (ref. 24), 78-80.
223. Rosenfeld to Pauli (ref. 106), 587-588.
224. Rosenfeld to Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 29 Oct 1951; Archives Joliot-Curie, Fonds Frédéric Joliot.
225. Rosenfeld to Joliot-Curie, 6 Apr 1952; Archives Joliot-Cusie, Fonds Frédéric Joliot. F120.
226. Joliot-Curie to Rosenfeld, 21 Apr 1953, Archives Joliot-Curie, Fonds Frédéric Joliot, F120.
227. Rosenfeld to Law Whyte (reg. 51).
228. Draft of letter from Rosenfeld to Kurt Gottfried, 8 Mar 1967, RP, "Complementarity + measurement of quantum mechanics" in "Epistemology."
229. Copy of letter from Rosenfeld to Strauss, 24 Apr 1953, NBA.
230. See draft of letter from Strauss to Rosenfeld, 5 May 1953, copy at NBA.
231. John Desmond Bernal to Rosenfeld, 15 Dec 1955; RP, "Review of Bernal's Science in history (1955-56)" in "History of science," copy of letter from Bohm to Loinger, 10 Nov 1966, 3, RP, "Measuring process, Nov. 1966-Jan. 1967" in "Epistemology."
232. Fock to Rosenfeld (ref. 43)
233. Jammer (ref. 89), 250. Rosenfeld seems to have had no direct exchange of views with the Nagoya group of Marxist physicists in Japan.
234. About this group's philosophical inclinations, see Kent W. Staley, "Lost origins of the third generation of quarks: Theory, philosophy, and experiment," Physics in perspective, 3 (2001), 210-229.
235. Graham (ref. 30), 337
236. Fock, "Critique épistémologique de théories récentes," La Pensée: Revue du rationalisme moderne, 91 (1960), 8-15.
237. Fock, "Report 'The journey to Copenhagen,'" originally published in Russian in Vestnik Akademii Nauk, 27:7 (1957), 54-57
238. English translation in BSC. According to Fock, Bohr's collaborator Christian Møller, originally asked Fock to visit Copenhagen when the two met at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, in 1955. The invitation was confirmed by Niels Bohr in 1956 and later arranged with Aage Bohr, during a visit by the latter to the Soviet Union the same year.
239. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 480.
240. Heisenberg, "Der Begriff 'abgeschlossene Theorie' in der modernen Naturwissenschaf," Dialectica, 2:3-4 (1948), 333-336
241. reprinted in Heisenberg, Schritte über Grenzen. Gesammelte Reden und Aufsätze (Munich, 1971), 87-94.
242. See also Alisa Bokulich, "Open or closed? Dirac, Heisenberg, and the relation between classical and quantum mechanics," Studies in history and philosophy of modern physics, 35 (2004), 377-396.
243. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), session 3, 6.
244. Niels Bohr, Atomic theory and the description of nature (ref. 45), 116
245. Grübaum to Rosenfeld, 20 Apr 1957
246. RP, "Correspondance générale 1955-58" in "Epistemology" Rosenfeld to Grünbaum (ref. 63).
247. "Personally I am very glad to have the exact reference to the weak spots you have detected in his writings. I hope this will strengthen my hand when I again try to persuade him to be more careful in his terminology," draft of a letter from Rosenfeld to Grünbaum, 11 Dec 1957, RP, "Correspondance générale 1955-58" in "Epistemology" Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), session 3, 6-7.
248. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 482.
249. "I am first concerned ... with Heisenberg and with you. I have already corresponded with Heisenberg (whom you are free to consider idealistic, if you only consider this letter to be sufficiently materialistic)... To say it frankly, I am very much against your writing again on complementarity (it is urgent that Bohr do this himself again), simply because it is slowly getting dull. We should not keep repeating the same Schmus." Pauli to Rosenfeld, 21 May 1954, PSC, Part 2, 639-640, on 640.
250. See, for example, Heisenberg, "The development" (ref. 1), 28
251. Heisenberg, Natural law and the structure of matter (London, 1970), 32-33.
252. Rosenfeld, "Berkeley redivivus" (ref. 36)
253. Rosenfeld, "Strife" (ref. 31), 480-481
254. Heisenberg to Rosenfeld, 16 Apr 1958, RP, "Correspondance particulière."
255. Born to Rosenfeld (ref. 52).
256. Born, "Dialectical materialism and modern physics", msc in RP, "Correspondance particulière" Born to Rosenfeld, 14 Nov 1955, RP, "Correspondance particulière."
257. See also Freire, "Science, philosophy and politics" (ref. 2)
258. Pauli to Rosenfeld, 1 Apr 1952, PSC, Part 1, 590-593.
259. Born to Rosenfeld, 24 Oct 1955, RP, "Correspondance particulière."
260. "Professor Bohr has asked me to say how interested he has been in reading your paper for the Festschrift for de Broglie [see ref. 100]. The professor would now like very much to have a copy of the whole Festschrift, but so far I have not succeeded in getting hold of it. Could you be so kind to inform us of the exact title as well as the publisher so that we can procure it immediately."
261. Sophie Hellmann to Rosenfeld, 27 Oct 1952, RP.
262. Kuhn and Heilbron (ref. 8), session 3, 6.
263. Ibid., 12.
264. Anja Skaar Jacobsen, conversation with Jørgen Kalckar, 14 Jan 2005.
265. Jacobsen, interview with Jørgen Kalckar, 10 Jan 2005
266. Jacobsen, conversation (ref. 134).
267. "[T]he discerning reader will not fail to notice the not inessential difference in shadings between Bohr's views and those advocated by other proponents of the so-called 'Copenhagen Interpretation,' notably Heisenberg and Rosenfeld," Niels Bohr collected works, Vol. 6, Foundations of quantum physics I (1926-1932) Jørgen Kalckar, ed., 30.
268. Freire, "Quantum controversy" and "Science and exile" (ref. 2)
269. Cross (ref. 75), 751-752,
270. Graham (ref. 30), 343-353.
271. Heilbron (ref. 2), 222-223, 225-228
272. Kalckar (ref. 18).
273. Jacobsen (ref. 19).
274. Rosenfeld, "The evolution of the idea of causality" (ref. 46), 461.
275. Rosenfeld, "Remarques sur la question des précurseurs," Archeion, 21 (1938), 74-77.
276. Heilbron (ref. 2).
277. Finn Aaserud, Redirecting science: Niels Bohr, philanthropy and the rise of nuclear physics (Cambridge, 1990)
278. Rosenfeld, "Bohr, Niels Henrik David", Charles Coulston Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of scientific biography, Vol. 1 (New York, 1970), 239-254, on 250-252.
279. See also Forstner's analysis of David Bohm's reflections on dialectical materialism and quantum mechanics (ref. 93).
280. Joravsky (ref. 24).
281. Freire, "Quantum controversy" (ref. 2)
282. Cross (ref. 75).
283. Pannekoek (ref. 34)
284. Bernal (ref. 41).