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When surveying the literature, one often gets the impression that Schrödinger held, in succession, four distinct interpretations of quantum mechanics, and that, except for the one he borrowed from the Copenhagen group, these interpretations all fell into a complete and deserved oblivion. People generally recognize the great importance of his contributions to the interpretation of quantum mechanics. But what they regard as important here are, as a rule, only the lines of argument and ingenious thought-experiments by which Schrödinger challenged the current orthodoxy, thus forcing his contemporaries to clarify their positions. On the face of it, none of Schrödinger's own positive suggestions appear to have had any lasting influence. Let us then begin with a brief statement of this widespread view of Schrödinger's philosophy of quantum mechanics, especially as originally stated in the writings of such contemporaries as Heisenberg and Born, before we subject it to critical scrutiny.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-1772-9_1

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