An examination of the history of the development of quantum mechanics in the early part of the present century shows the essential influence both of factors usually taken to be "internal" to science (such as logical consistency, empirical adequacy, fertility and the like) and of "external" ones (such as professional rivalries and prior metaphysical commitments of some of the major scientists). Neither class of factors alone can explain why the "Copenhagen" interpretation of quantum mechanics, with its ineliminable indeterminism at the level of microprocesses, was chosen by the consensus of the scientific community to the virtual exclusion of an equally empirically adequate and fertile causal version of quantum mechanics in which one has the deterministic, continuous and picturable evolution of microsystems in a space-time background. Professor Cushing argues that there exists a possible, and in fact plausible, temporal reordering of certain highly contingent events in the actual historical record that could have resulted in the acceptance of a deterministic, causal quantum theory to the exclusion of the present "Copenhagen" orthodoxy of inherent indeterminism. In this research project, Professor Cushing is exploring the ramifications of the existence of a viable rival to the accepted position in science and the failure of science to explore this alternative. He argues that this raises practical as opposed to just in-principle problems of the underdetermination of accepted scientific theories by an empirical basis and questions of the reliability of the knowledge with which science provides.
