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fintech1 t1_ixjqaub wrote

Reply to comment by simplicissimusrex in I'm Ananyo Bhattacharya, author of 'The Man from the Future', about Hungarian-American mathematical genius John von Neumann. AMA! by simplicissimusrex

Thank you for the detailed answer! It is a little sad that Grete Hermann rebuttal was ignored (possibly because of sexism?) until John Bell came along.

I just purchased the book and I’m looking forward to reading it!

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simplicissimusrex OP t1_ixjs6pr wrote

Hermann was a remarkable person. Heisenberg devoted a full chapter of his autobiography to Hermann's arguments about causality in quantum mechanics! Thanks and hope you enjoy the book.

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JanusLeeJones t1_ixl5sze wrote

I've seen it recently argued that it was more likely due to being published in philosophy journals and physicists never refer to philosophy journals.

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simplicissimusrex OP t1_ixmc5ch wrote

I definitely think there's something in that. But the physicists of the 20s and 30s were far more interested in 'philosophical' issues and interpretation of QM than physicists now, though it's making a bit of a come back in certain circles.

Hermann did prepare the way with an essay which she sent to Bohr, heisenberg and others--and we know that Heisenberg and
von Weizsäcker read it, and met with her to discuss the essay. but her criticism of the 'no hidden variables' proof was just a small part of that essay and the resulting paper. She didn't seem to attach that much importance to it herself. There was a lot of sexism obviously but it's a mark of Hermann's intellect that she overcame even that and was taken very seriously.

But yes, she first published her thoughts in Abhandlugen der Fries’schen Schule, which was philosophy. When she was asked to send an edited version to Die Naturwissenschaften, which would certainly have been read widely by scientits, she left her criticism of von Neumann out....

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JanusLeeJones t1_ixmiv36 wrote

Yes I wish she was encouraged to publish her von Neumann work in a physics journal. In any case, I was quite impressed to see her show up in Heisenberg's Physics and Beyond (I think that was the book) as a someone Heisenberg found worthy to write about, and discuss her ideas seriously.

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