From physics to metaphysics /

Redhead, a distinguished philosopher of quantum mechanics, is known for his vigorous support of realist epistemology. In this revision of his Cambridge Tarner Lectures, he summarizes his critique of current antirealist and subjectivist positions, and makes clear his avowedly Popperian generalization. There are some nice examples of the argument against relativism from special relativity and statistical mechanics and, of course, from his highly regarded interpretations of the problem of nonlocality generated by the Bell's theorem-Aspect experiment discourses. This leads to a delicate discussion of reduction, wherein Redhead's form of successive intertheoretic revision avoids the naive realists' "T.O.E." ("Theory of Everything"), while providing the possible convergence to uniform principles, at least in the tentative, neo-Positivist form. This short essay, minus the technical argument of chapter 3, would make a good introduction to this end of the contemporary spectrum of epistemology of science and, in a less expensive format, should be included in introductory science courses. Recommended for collections in the philosophy of science. Undergraduate through faculty. P. D. Skiff Bard College