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The Rhetoric of Antirealism and the Copenhagen Spirit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Mara Beller
Mara Beller*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
*
†Send reprint requests to the author, Philosophy Department, Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.
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Abstract

This paper argues against the possibility of presenting a consistent version of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics, characterizing its founders' philosophical pronouncements including those on the realism-antirealism issue, as a contingent collection of local, often contradictory, moves in changing theoretical and sociopolitical circumstances. The paper analyzes the fundamental differences of opinion between Bohr and the mathematical physicists, Heisenberg and Born, concerning the foundational doctrine of the “indispensability of classical concepts”, and their related disagreements on “quantum reality.” The paper concludes with an explanation of how the appearance of consensus was achieved despite fundamental disagreements among the proponents. The paper undermines the adequacy of the notion of a general conceptual framework to describe the philosophical endeavors of working scientists.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 183 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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