Related papers: Beyond Complementarity
The only acceptable reason why measurements are irreversible and outcomes definite is the intrinsic definiteness and irreversibility of human sensory experience. While QBists deserve credit for their spirited defense of this position, Niels…
In a recent preprint [1] Jeffrey Bub presents a discussion of neo-Bohrian interpretations of quantum mechanics, and also of von Neumann's work on infinite tensor products [2]. He rightfully writes that this work provides a theoretical…
QBism is a novel interpretation of quantum mechanics. With its radical emphasis on the subject, QBism provides a welcome corrective to popular misrepresentations of the epistemological reflections of Niels Bohr, while Bohr, rightly…
Evidence is recalled of the strong opposition of Niels Bohr, at the time of the Old Quantum Theory 1.913-25, to the Lichtquanten hypothesis of Einstein. Some episodes with H.A. Kramers, J.C. Slater and W. Heisenberg are recollected; Bohr's…
A growing number of commentators have, in recent years, noted the important affinities in the views of Immanuel Kant and Niels Bohr. While these commentators are correct, the picture they present of the connections between Bohr and Kant is…
We derive the probabilities of measurement results from Schroedinger's equation plus a definition of macroscopic as a particular kind of thermodynamic limit. Bohr's insight that a measurement apparatus must be classical in nature and…
The spectacular successes of quantum physics have made it a commonplace to assert that we live in a quantum world. This idea seems to imply a kind of "quantum fundamentalism" according to which everything in the universe (if not the…
It is suggested that the "B" in QBism rightfully stands for Bohr. The paper begins by explaining why Bohr seems obscure to most physicists. Having identified the contextuality of physical quantities as Bohr's essential contribution to…
I outline a neo-Bohrian interpretation of quantum mechanics -- a view of quantum mechanics that accords with the core insights in Bohr's thinking, with a twist that justifies the prefix `neo.' In a second part of the paper, I show how von…
Although Bohr's reply to the EPR argument is supposed to be a watershed moment in the development of his philosophy of quantum theory, it is difficult to find a clear statement of the reply's philosophical point. Moreover, some have claimed…
Quantum theory brings into question the compatibility of the twin desiderata of exact knowability of the present state of the physical world and perfect predictability of its future states. Bohr's coordination-causality complementarity…
After introducing sketchily Bohr's wave-particle complementarity principle in his own words, a derivation of an extended form of the principle from standard quantum mechanics is performed. Reality-evaluation of each step is given. The…
Quantum Mechanics (QM) has faced deep controversies and debates since its origin when Werner Heisenberg proposed the first mathematical formalism capable to operationally account for what had been recently discovered as the new field of…
Niels Bohr proposed that the outcome of the measurement becomes objective and real, and, hence, classical, when its results can be communicated by classical means. In this work we revisit Bohr's postulate using modern tools from the quantum…
I distinguish two senses in which one can take a given physical theory to be `complete'. On the first, a complete physical theory is one that, in principle, completely describes physical reality. On the second, a complete physical theory is…
Complementarity is one of the main features of quantum physics that radically departs from classical notions. Here we consider the limitations that this principle imposes due to the unpredictability of measurement outcomes of incompatible…
The measurement problem is the issue of explaining how the objective classical world emerges from a quantum one. Here we take a different approach. We assume that there is an objective classical system, and then ask that the standard rules…
Some of the so-called imponderables and counterintuitive puzzles associated with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics appear to have alternate, parallel explanations in terms of nonlinear dynamics and chaos. These include the…
The quantum formalism is a ``measurement'' formalism--a phenomenological formalism describing certain macroscopic regularities. We argue that it can be regarded, and best be understood, as arising from Bohmian mechanics, which is what…
Recent high-precision experimental confirmations of quantum complementarity have revitalized foundational debates about measurement, description, and realism. This article argues that complementarity is most productively interpreted as an…