Niels Bohr, Complementarity, and Realism

PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986:96 - 104 (1986)
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Abstract

Although it is, often considered a form of anti-realism, here it is argued that Bohr's complementarity viewpoint must accept entity realism based on its analysis of the causal interaction involved in observation. However, because Bohr accepts the quantum postulate he must reject the view that the goal of theory is to represent the independently existing object apart from observation. Thus he abandons the spectator account of knowledge and with it the correspondence theory of truth. In this respect his view is parallel to the positions held by Hacking, Cartwright, and Ellis.

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reprint Folse, Henry J. (1986) "_Niels Bohr, Complementarity, and Realism_". PSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986(1):96-104

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Citations of this work

Norms of Testimony in Broad Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Quantum Mechanics in Critical Theory.Rasmus Jaksland - 2020 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 52 (1):35-61.
Bohr as a Phenomenological Realist.Towfic Shomar - 2008 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 39 (2):321-349.

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