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The History of Quantum Mechanics as a Decisive Argument Favoring Einstein over Lorentz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

R. M. Nugayev
R. M. Nugayev*
Affiliation:
Kazan State University, USSR
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Abstract

Einstein's papers on relativity, quantum theory, and statistical mechanics were all part of a single research program; the aim was to unify mechanics and electrodynamics. It was this broader program–which eventually split into relativistic physics and quantum mechanics–that superseded Lorentz's theory. The argument of this paper is partly historical and partly methodological. A notion of “crossbred objects“–theoretical objects with contradictory properties which are part of the domain of application of two different research programs–is developed that explains the dynamics of revolutionary theory change.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 44 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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