Cuffaro, Michael (Author)
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 painted in broad strokes; it is open to the criticism that these affinities are merely superficial. In this essay, I provide a closer, structural, analysis of both Bohr's and Kant's views that makes these connections more explicit. In particular, I demonstrate the similarities between Bohr's argument, on the one hand, that neither the wave nor the particle description of atomic phenomena pick out an object in the ordinary sense of the word, and Kant's requirement, on the other hand, that both `mathematical' (having to do with magnitude) and `dynamical' (having to do with an object's interaction with other objects) principles must be applicable to appearances in order for us to determine them as objects of experience. I argue that Bohr's `complementarity interpretation' of quantum mechanics, which views atomic objects as idealizations, and which licenses the repeal of the principle of causality for the domain of atomic physics, is perfectly compatible with, and indeed follows naturally from a broadly Kantian epistemological framework.
...MoreDescription A structural analysis of Bohr's and Kant's views, showing their similarities.
Article
Rigden, John S.;
Stuewer, Roger H.;
(2012)
Understanding of Quantum Mechanics Eludes Physicists for Eighty-Six Years
(/isis/citation/CBB001221642/)
Article
Halvorson, Hans;
(2004)
Complementarity of Representations in Quantum Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB000471100/)
Article
Jacobsen, Anja Skaar;
(2007)
Léon Rosenfeld's Marxist Defense of Complementarity
(/isis/citation/CBB000850130/)
Book
Barab, Peter;
(2010)
The Complementary Nature of Reality
(/isis/citation/CBB001020874/)
Article
Camilleri, Kristian;
(2007)
Bohr, Heisenberg and the Divergent Views of Complementarity
(/isis/citation/CBB000701043/)
Article
Perovic, Slobodan;
(2013)
Emergence of Complementarity and the Baconian Roots of Niels Bohr's Method
(/isis/citation/CBB001213353/)
Book
Plotnitsky, Arkady;
(2010)
Epistemology and Probability: Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger and the Nature of Quantum-Theoretical Thinking
(/isis/citation/CBB001230453/)
Thesis
Lee, Jeongmin;
(2006)
Bohr vs. Bohm: Interpreting Quantum Theory through the Philosophical Tradition
(/isis/citation/CBB001561463/)
Book
Pietro Greco;
(2020)
Quanti. La straordinaria storia della meccanica quantistica
(/isis/citation/CBB247197978/)
Article
Shomar, Towfic;
(2008)
Bohr as a Phenomenological Realist
(/isis/citation/CBB001230072/)
Article
Marij van Strien;
(2020)
Pluralism and anarchism in quantum physics: Paul Feyerabend's writings on quantum physics in relation to his general philosophy of science
(/isis/citation/CBB348944318/)
Article
Adrien Vila Valls;
(2015)
Entre causalisme et positivisme : La réception épistémologique de la mécanique quantique par les théoriciens français de la génération de l’entre-deux-guerres
(/isis/citation/CBB691093830/)
Chapter
Salvo D'Agostino;
(2009)
Einstein: la scienza come autocritica
(/isis/citation/CBB537435671/)
Article
Philippe Stamenkovic;
(2017)
Retour sur la philosophie de la physique quantique d’Ernst Cassirer
(/isis/citation/CBB115699306/)
Book
Stenholm, Stig;
(2011)
The Quest for Reality: Bohr and Wittgenstein: Two Complementary Views
(/isis/citation/CBB001500296/)
Article
Healey, Richard A.;
(2015)
How Quantum Theory Helps Us Explain
(/isis/citation/CBB001202330/)
Book
Lange, Marc;
(2002)
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass
(/isis/citation/CBB000201447/)
Article
Bokulich, Alisa;
(2008)
Paul Dirac and the Einstein-Bohr Debate
(/isis/citation/CBB000831776/)
Article
Kunihisa Morita;
(2016)
Einstein's Criticism of Quantum Mechanics and Humean Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB195434031/)
Book
Camilleri, Kristian;
(2009)
Heisenberg and the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: The Physicist as Philosopher
(/isis/citation/CBB000951622/)
Be the first to comment!