Penser la matière a l’ère de la mécanique quantique : Une analyse des textes d’Erwin Schrödinger.

Abstract

There are two periods in the history of science: the classical period and the modern period. Both periods have the same objective, that of seeking and assigning meaning to the universe and the matter around us. However, as we move from classical to modern science, we observe a discontinuous revolution in the problem of the status of matter. In classical science,matter was regarded as an "elementary brick" whose motion, position and mass could be determined absolutely. Here, matter was understood as that which occupies an extended space, has a certain size and shape and is endowed with some mass. This matter could be moved or moulded. It was solid. However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the period that marked the beginning of modern science, this conception of matter entered into crisis. One of the fundamental reasons for this crisis was the broadening of the conceptual framework of matter. This broadening has led to a paradigm shift in the status of matter. Beyond the laws of classical physics, such as Newton's laws, which claimed to explain the total behavior of matter, certain physicists such as Einstein, De Broglie and above all Schrödinger have plunged the researcher into a world where his intuition no longer works. Erwin Schrödinger is a philosopher who has done much to redefine the status of matter. The essence of his thought is contained in his equation of the dead and living cat. At first glance, this equation seems superfluous, providing an alternative to Heisenberg's matrix calculus. However, it allows us to explain and solve certain old problems in physics, considered by certain African philosophers, such as Pierre Meinrad Hebga, to be a matter of sorcery and magic. This is the case in the explanation of levitation, bewitchment and cannibalism, which find their solutions in mastering the relationship between the mass and energy of matter. In materializing his equation, Schrödinger went so far as to identify matter with energy. Hence his wave mechanics, which enabled him to take full credit for facilitating the understanding of matter at the subatomic level. However, his failure to take account of mass or the corpuscle in the conception of matter reveals a problem of systemic and methodological negligence. But this neglect does not negate the pedagogical and epistemological value of his philosophical vision, which provides sufficient information about the conceptual change of matter and the enrichment of scientific language by concepts specific to quantum physics.