Abstract
Reconstructions of quantum theory are a novel research program in theoretical physics aiming to uncover the unique physical features of quantum theory via axiomatization. I argue that reconstructions represent a modern usage of the axiomatic method as successors to von Neumann’s axiomatizations in quantum mechanics. The key difference between von Neumann’s applications and Hardy’s “Quantum Theory from five reasonable axioms” (Hardy 2001) is that von Neumann did not have an established mathematical formalism to base his axiomatization on, whereas Hardy uses an established formalism as a constraint, which is a unique feature of the axiomatic method in the reconstruction programme.
