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The Projection Postulate and Bohr's Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

Paul Teller
Paul Teller*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle
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Extract

Why does Bohr nowhere discuss the projection postulate? He has the courtesy to cast at least a few disparaging words at some other notions for which he has no use, such as quantum logic. But he will not even admit the projection postulate as a subject for discussion. Another way to raise the puzzle is to point out that, although Bohr has a lot to say about measurement, he won't even recognize the existence of what has come to be called the “problem of measurement”.

I have exaggerated slightly. We have one relevant comment, in the report of the discussion after Bohr's talk at the 1938 Warsaw conference:

Professor Bohr wished to say, relative to the question propounded by the president, that the duality he noticed in the interpretation of the formalism of quantum mechanics was, in his opinion, a question of choosing the most adequate description of the experiment.

Type
Part III. Quantum Theory in Historical Perspective
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 201 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

1

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant NSF 79 05574. Many thanks for the helpful comments from colleagues too numerous to mention, even supposing I could remember who they all were!

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