The Philosophic Roots of Quantum Theory and the Fallacy of Interpretation

I recently condensed portions from my undergraduate thesis in philosophy at Reed College into a short paper that I hope to submit for publication. The goal is to appeal to a wide audience-- laymen, scientists, philosophers.

View the article: The Philosophic Roots of Quantum Theory and the Fallacy of Interpretation (PDF) (Note, I recently revised the work and changed the name on 8/6/'08)

A historical narrative of the origin of quantum theory is offered. It is shown that quantum theory was motivated by “Mach’s Principle,” the notion that unobserved natural processes have no place in a physical theory. As such, quantum mechanics should not be interpreted, as it is often done, as a description of underlying physics, but rather as a computational tool for predicting observable quantities. Further, in the eighty years since its inception, the original classical problem of nonradiation of the bound electron has been considerably advanced. The implications are discussed.

For an extensive discussion of related topics, consult the full thesis: Scientific Realism, Empiricism, and Quantum Theory (PDF)