The French crisis: Rethinking the phenomenology of quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics, when interpreted through the phenomenological lens of London and Bauer, can transform physics into a “genuine science” that is grounded in the lifeworld and transcendental subjectivity, thereby completing the project Husserl outlined in The Crisis of European Sciences. While this interpretation takes a step toward Husserl’s phenomenology, a more thorough phenomenological investigation is still required to avoid a new crisis. The authors argue that Steven French underestimates the “constitutional history” of the mathematical idealities that underpin quantum mechanics, meaning the historical and subjective processes by which those mathematical concepts were formed.

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Abstract

In his book, A Phenomenological Approach to Quantum Mechanics: Cutting the Chain of Correlations, Steven French argues that quantum mechanics, understood through the phenomenological lens of London and Bauer, turns physics into a "genuine science", and thus completes the project Edmund Husserl had started in his last major publication, The Crisis of European Sciences. What makes quantum mechanics a genuine science, according to French, is that it is fully grounded in the "lifeworld and transcendental subjectivity", just as Husserl dreamt. While we agree with French that London and Bauer's reading of quantum mechanics is inspired by and thus makes a step towards Husserl's phenomenology, we argue that a more encompassing phenomenological investigation is still needed if we are to avoid another crisis. More specifically, our claim is that French underestimates the "constitutional history" of the kinds of mathematical idealities that underlie quantum mechanics.