Atomic Theory and the Human Scene:

...But it is not clear whether the paradoxes are genuine or not, since the meanings of the cited words in the context of quantum theory may not be identical with their meanings either in common discourse or in classical physics...

...For he maintains that "complementary modes of thought and complementary descriptions of reality are an old, long-enduring part of our tradition...

...Reviewed by Ernest Nagel Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University IN THESE Reith Lectures, delivered over the BBC's Home Service in 1953, Dr...

...His concluding chapter is an eloquent plea for an open society—one in which human experience is recognized as being of radically disparate kinds, in which there are many freely formed communities but no single dominant, overriding culture, and in which the essential plurality of truth is both acknowledged and pursued without hindrance...

...Oppenheimer has done this...

...Different readers will doubtless gauge differently the success with which Dr...

...And he argues cogently that, since the "indeterminacy'' which obtains according to quantum theory in subatomic regions is practically negligible for the interaction of macroscopic objects, the conclusions concerning human affairs sometimes drawn from quantum theoretical indeterminacy are quite unwarranted...

...He contributes the sage observation that in general it is not the specific technical details of a dominant physical theory, but rather its style of thought and its implicit attitude toward human reason, which become the stimulus and foundation for subsequent political and philosophical speculations...

...For example, he describes the structure of atoms with the help of such expressions as "particle," "position," "velocity" and "mass": and...

...This climactic finale has a strongly moving quality...

...Oppenheimer admits as much in so many words...

...In addition, he is a skilful literary craftsman and knows how to compose clear and echoing prose...

...He also recognizes, moreover, that while many expressions employed in physical theory are identical with those used in everyday life, serious misapprehensions result when one forgets that familiar words often acquire altered meanings on being transplanted to the novel contexts of scientific theory...

...The physical principle of complementarity has a relatively clear meaning within the context of quantum theory, but its extension to quite different contexts, for which the key-terms of the principle are not carefully defined, obscures instead of clarifying...

...and, in general, it is difficult to realize the conditions for valid employment of analogies in large speculative matters...

...Psycho-physical parallelism is thus presented as embodying a lasting element in human understanding...

...But, in any case, Dr...

...But these limitations are perhaps inevitable, in view of the ambitious task which the author has sought to achieve in relatively brief compass...

...Consequently, no account of subatomic processes in terms of one of these conceptions is fully adequate, so that a description in one context of inquiry must in general be supplemented by a "complementary description in a different context...

...The greater part of this book is devoted to depicting the physical world that was dominant from the seventeenth century down to our period, to characterizing the methods and ideals of classical mechanics, and to describing the altered conceptions underlying atomic study...

...are not expressions of a wholesale skepticism but essential means for achieving reliable knowledge...

...His book is instructive, suggestive and full of quiet wisdom...

...It is moving because of the passionate and memorable vision of human goods it portrays, because of its sensitive appreciation of the diverse dimensions of human experience, and because of the profound personal humility it exhibits...

...Moreover, the "great antinomies" of human experience (such as those between ceaseless change and eternity, between growth and order, between freedom and necessity, between cause and purpose, between the individual and the community, or between contemplation and action) are represented as radically incommensurable yet complementary features in the life of man, which must be formulated and discussed in complementary modes of speech...

...Though the use of physical analogies in discussions of human affairs can be fruitful and stimulating, it can also be inconclusive and misleading...

...He maintains, for example, that even if physical correlates for consciousness should some day be established, the language of psychology rather than that of physics would still be the appropriate one for describing the thoughts and passions of men...

...and he modestly claims that his use of atomic physics here is to serve chiefly "to give us a reminder, and a certain reassurance, that these ways of talking and thinking can be factual, appropriate, precise, and free of obscurantism...

...In his presentation of these complex themes...

...But such remarks plainly suggest that, unlike the mathematical formalism of classical mechanics, the formalism of quantum theory cannot be given a univocal and wholesale interpretation independent of special experimental contexts, so that different interpretations must be supplied for each type of concrete experimental situation...

...Oppenheimer is expertly familiar with the relevance of modern atomic theory for technology, and he does not minimize the influences which the technological products of atomic research exert on men's thoughts and actions...

...He conceives the unity of science to be constituted not by a common set of basic truths or methods, hut by a free community of independent inquirers, pursuing what are often incomparable objectives and yet bound together by a common allegiance to the ideal of universal brotherhood...

...Nevertheless, the vision that is thus finally presented appears to be largely independent of the involved discussion which precedes it...

...Yet, despite these reservations, Dr...

...Oppenheimer warns against interpretations of quantum "indeterminacy" in subjectivistic terms...

...Oppenheimer offers a thoroughgoing pluralistic view of things...

...Oppenheimer outlines the argument, based on an analysis of certain experiments, which has led Niels Bohr to his Principle of Complementarity...

...The large issues raised by these claims are difficult and delicate, and the non-physicist (such as the present reviewer) is perhaps not entitled to hold independent opinions about them...

...His primary concern, however, is with the revolutionary content of quantum mechanics and with the lessons that can legitimately be drawn from it for a philosophy of man and society...

...The theological misuses of analogical argument are notorious...

...when this language is used, some features of subatomic processes appear quite paradoxical from the standpoint of Newtonian mechanics...

...He is not only a distinguished physicist, superbly equipped to discuss the primary materials of his subject...

...He makes it clear that the critical temper of science, and its use of a self-corrective method of inquiry...

...Oppenheimer believes that the most revolutionary and significant feature of quantum theory consists in the fact that "complementary" modes of formulation must be used by the theory in ''describing" subatomic processes...

...He stresses the cumulative nature of science, and the libertarian yet self-disciplined spirit of the scientific community...

...It is not uniformly easy reading, and it does not fully resolve many questions which it raises...

...His qualifications for this task are beyond question and are of the highest order...

...Certainly more needs to be said on this difficult question than Dr...

...He does, indeed, point out that expressions like "position" and "momentum" signify complementary notions in quantum mechanics, in the sense that "where one applies, the other cannot be defined," and that "for a full description we must be able to use now one, now the other, depending on the observation and the questions that we put...

...He is also an unusually thoughtful and warm human being, who has read widely in philosophy and the history of ideas, and who is acutely sensitive to the many dimensions and complexities of human experience...

...The query thus seems pertinent whether the anomalous, "acausal" structure of subatomic processes may not have been deduced from just such wholesale interpretations, and whether at least some of the philosophical puzzles of quantum theory are generated by proposed readings of the language of atomic physics that are incompatible with the rules governing its application in determinate contexts...

...Oppenheimer says many fine things, sometimes by way of digression from his main thesis...

...He makes a similar claim for the fact that different sciences employ different languages...

...Oppenheimer aims to interpret the import of current ideas in subatomic physical theory for a broad view of man and his place in the world...

...Radical pluralism and the conception of an open society can be, and have been, defended without the benefit of quantum physics and without analogies with the physical principle of complementarity...

...Oppenheimer has found room to say...

...Accordingly, the reader is not properly oriented to decide whether or not the alleged breakdown of "causal" explanations in subatomic domains involves primarily a semantic issue...

...At the same time, be stresses that discoveries about the structure of atoms do not logically necessitate any definite philosophical conclusions about the world at large, and in particular about the human scene...

...Oppenheimer, there is at best only a "kind of analogy" between what the physical sciences affirm about physical nature and the metaphysical, epistemologi-cal, political and ethical views that may be based on fundamental physical theory...

...According to Dr...

...Indeed, a case as good as that advanced in this book can be made out for pluralism and a libertarian society within the framework of classical mechanics...

...But to this reviewer, despite his fundamental agreement with the author's libertarian pluralism, that success appears incomplete...

...Oppenheimer sees the complementarities of quantum physics as the chief source for valid and relevant analogies for understanding the macroscopic world, and in particular the human scene...

...He also indicates in this connection why the Newtonian ideal of strictly "causal" or "deterministic" explanations cannot (at least at present) be realized in atomic physics...

...In effect, therefore, Dr...

...He suggests that our use of the language of statistical mechanics in some descriptions of the behavior of gases, and of the language of thermodynamics in other descriptions, is at least partly analogous to quantum-mechanical complementarity...

...Oppenheimer believes that recent theoretical developments in atomic physics supply us with relevant analogies to human problems which at present fall outside the domain of physical science...

...Such complementary descriptions are required because the fundamental atomic constituents appear to possess both particle-like and wave-like traits, despite the mutual incompatibility of the particle and wave conceptions...

...On more specific issues, Dr...

...However this may be, Dr...

...Oppen-heimer's discussion of them is not as full and as persuasive as one would like to have from him, especially in view of his own observation that the language of quantum theory must not be construed as if it were simply the extension of common forms of speech to subatomic subject-matter...

...He calls attention to the fact that what are at one period objects of scientific inquiry (e.g., alpha particles) often become standard instruments for new discoveries...