The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in Post-War Italy's Cultural Context
Flavio Del Santo

TL;DR
Post-WWII Italy experienced a unique revival of interest in quantum foundations during the 1960s and 1970s, driven by political influences and key figures like Selleri, fostering a distinct research community and challenging mainstream views.
Contribution
This paper documents the historical emergence and significance of quantum foundations research in Italy, highlighting its political context and influence on international discourse.
Findings
Italy's quantum foundations movement was politically motivated and influential.
The 1970 Varenna School was pivotal for international quantum foundations research.
Italian physicists aimed to challenge the limits of quantum theory's validity.
Abstract
After World War II, a hyper-pragmatic paradigm was established in physics in most of the western countries, within which foundations of quantum mechanics were vastly dismissed as pointless speculations. In this paper, we show that in Italy, however, the interest toward quantum foundations was revived at the turn of the 1960s, mainly thanks to the initiative of Franco Selleri, who started criticising the contents and the practice of modern physics (in the context of capitalistic society), and thought that the solution was to be sought in a rethinking of the foundations of the discipline. In 1969, supported by Luis de Broglie himself, Selleri wrote a paper reviving the idea of hidden variables and he successfully proposed to the Italian Physical Society to devote the "Varenna School" of 1970 to quantum foundations. This school's historical pivotal importance is twofold: it gathered some…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPhilosophy and History of Science · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments · History and Theory of Mathematics
