Abstract

The philosophical problems discussed by the author of this scientifically erudite work concern the usual and much debated questions of the role of causality in microphysics and the "completeness" and "indeterminism" of statistical theories in natural science. Blokhintsev, the author of a highly-regarded Russian text on quantum theory, advocates the direct opposite of the Einsteinian thesis; and furthermore, he seems to interpret the alleged irreducibly statistical nature of physical theory in a quite literal ontological sense. "We must now accept," he says, "that we cannot ignore the element of games of chance in the behavior of the universe." The materials adduced in support of this thesis consist almost entirely of various essays in theoretical physics, which, while undoubtedly relevant to the question at issue, will be accessible in their details and content only to those philosophers with better than average mathematical acumen, particularly in classical analysis. Unfortunately, as so often happens in discussions of this type, the author's scientific expertise is not matched by his degree of philosophical rigor and awareness of important conceptual distinctions. Thus, although the concept of measurement in quantum mechanics and the differences between "direct" and "derived" measurement play a central role in his argument, the author seems unaware of the important logical differences which are brought out by rigorous postulational treatments of measurement theory. Moreover, when the author argues, convincingly enough, that even classical Newtonian mechanics is not a fit candidate for the label of "deterministic theory" if such factors as random fluctuations in the initial conditions and lack of isolation of actual physical systems are taken into account, he seems to forget that this is not the basis on which deterministic status is properly assigned to classical physical theory in the first place. It is physical theory as applied to suitably idealized physical systems which is held to be deterministic, and the same sort of idealizations are commonly assumed when quantum mechanics is said to be indeterministic.--H. P. K.