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The Problem of Physical Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

W. H. Werkmeister*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska

Extract

In his recently published book, The Nature of Physical Reality (5), Professor Margenau develops a conception of physical reality, which, on the one hand, is a repudiation of radical empiricism (5: 28) and which, on the other hand, is a denial of realism (5: 47). Margenau believes that he has accomplished his task by means of “constructs” which, in “a large area of discourse,” are “wholly synonymous” with concepts and which, nevertheless, when verified, are “the external objects” (5: 70–71; 296).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1952, The Williams & Wilkins Company

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Footnotes

1

A paper read on March 15, 1951 before the Philosophy Club of Harvard University.

References

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(3) Dirac, P. A. M., Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 3rd Edit.; England: Oxford University Press, 1947.Google Scholar
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(5) Margenau, H., The Nature of Physical Reality, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1950.Google Scholar
(6) Werkmeister, W. H., The Basis and Structure of Knowledge, New York: Harper & Bros., 1948.Google Scholar
(7) Werkmeister, W. H., “An Epistemological Basis for Quantum Physics,” Philosophy of Science, XVII, 1950.Google Scholar
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(9) Werkmeister, W. H., “Professor Margenau and the Problem of Physical Reality,” Philosophy of Science, XVIII, 1951, p. 183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar