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Hans Reichenbach was a philosopher with a truly scientific outlook, who throughout his distinguished career maintained a close working relationship with scientists, keeping abreast of developments in science as they happened. In his work we find a philosophy of science concerned not only with the general epistemological and methodological issues arising from an examination of the practice of science, but also with the detailed, painstaking analysis of the foundations of actual scientific theory as informed by a mastery of them, in particular, of physical theory. Thus, it is not surprising yet laudable to find his deep interest in the two major revolutions in physics which occurred during his lifetime – relativity theory and quantum mechanic¹—having issued in two major series of works by his hand, each on one of these topics. The first part of this claim is easy to defend, for few would deny the monumental contribution of his works on the philosophy of time, space, and relativistic physics, in particular Philosophie der Raum-Zeit-Lehre (1928). Yet granting a comparable status to his studies of the foundations of QM might meet with some reservations. Judged from the standpoint of relative influence there clearly is an asymmetry. The influence of the latter work has certainly been less marked than that of his writings on relativity theory, as other essays in this volume amply demonstrate. However, it is my opinion that Reichenbach's works on QM constitute a major contribution to the philosophy of physics and — when taken in terms of the fundamental point of view maintained — provide insights into the foundations of quantum theory fully comparable to those afforded by his other works.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-9404-1_16

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