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Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics: Selected Papers by Paul Forman and Contemporary Perspectives on the Forman Thesis

27 March 2012

By Cathryn Carson, Alexei Kojevnikov and Helmuth Trischler (eds.)
World Scientific
Hardback: £98 $150
E-book: $195

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This collection reprints Paul Forman’s classic papers on the history of the scientific profession in Germany after the First World War and the invention of quantum mechanics. The Forman thesis became famous for its demonstration of the cultural conditioning of scientific knowledge, in particular by showing the historical connection between the culture of Weimar Germany – known for its irrationality and antiscientism – and the emerging concept of quantum acausality. In 2007, participants at a conference in Vancouver discussed the implications of the Forman thesis for contemporary historiography. Their contributions are also in this volume.

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