The Observable

Patrick Aidan Heelan (1926–2015), a Jesuit priest, held a PhD. in geophysics and seismology (St. Louis University, 1952) and a PhD. in philosophy (Catholic University Leuven, 1964). He joined Fordham’s philosophy department (1965), became chair of philosophy at Stony Brook (1970), served as Georgetown University’s Executive Vice President (1992–1995), and taught philosophy (1995–2013). He is author of Quantum Mechanics and Objectivity (1965) and Space-Perception and the Philosophy of Science (1983). Babette Babich is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University in New York City. She is author of Un politique brisé. Le souci d’autrui, l’humanisme, et les juifs chez Heidegger (2015) and The Hallelujah Effect: Philosophical Reflections on Music, Performance Practice, and Technology (2013) in addition to essays and monographs on philosophy of science, politics, ethics, and aesthetics.

Contents: Observation, Description and Ontology: Strategy – Relativity: Model of a Scientific Revolution – Quantum Mechanics 1925: Revolution – Wave Mechanics 1926: Reaction – Search for a Paradigm - The Uncertainty Relations: Paradigm or Ontology of Nature? – The Philosophical Differences Between Heisenberg and Bohr – Complementarity - The Chicago Lectures 1929: Complementarity Adopted a Priori Role of Classical Physics – The Gifford Lectures 1955-56 and the New Aristotelianism – The Logical Status of Potentia – Objectivity and Realism in Quantum Mechanics – Observation, Description, and Ontology.