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Comments on the Paper of David Sharp

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

Mr. Sharp's resolution of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox is, in my opinion, the right one. However, the resolution does not in my opinion show that “God's in his heaven; all's right with the world (quantum mechanics).” This is in no way a criticism of Sharp; rather, it is inevitable that any resolution of this paradox, dealing as it does with the quantum mechanical concept of “measurement”, must tangle with some of the real difficulties which are lurking in the notion. The purpose of these comments is to use Mr. Sharp's remarks as a basis for bringing out one of the serious conceptual difficulties connected with measurement.

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , July 1961 , pp. 234 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1961

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References

1 For the “whole universe” any suitable closed system which includes the measuring apparatus may be understood in the present discussion.

2 D. Bohm, “Quantum Theory”, (Prentice-Hall, New York, 1951).

3 G. Ludwig, “Die Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik”, (Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1954).

4 Strictly speaking, the eigenfunctions of position are not functions but rather distributions in the sense of Schwartz.

5 This was suggested by B. Kayser, a fellow-student of Sharp's at Princeton.