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Niels Bohr and Contemporary Philosophy Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science NIELS BOHR AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Editor ROBERT S. COHEN, Boston University Editorial Advisory Board THOMAS F. GLICK, Boston University ADOLF GRUNBAUM, University ofPittsburgh SAHOTRA SARKAR, Dibner Institute M.l. T. SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Brandeis University JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University MARX W. WARTOFSKY, Baruch College of the City University ofNew York VOLUME 153 NIELS BOHR AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY Edited by JAN FAYE Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen , Denmark and HENRY J. FOLSE Department ofPhilosophy, Loyola University, New Orleans, U. S. A. ...,~ Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Niels Bohr and contemporary phIlosophy / edited by Jan Faye and Henry J. Folse. p. cm . -- (Boston studIes in the phi losophy of scIence; v. 153) Includes bIblIographIcal references and index. 1. Physlcs--Phl10sophy. 2 . PhIlosophy. Modern. I . Faye. Jan . II. Folse. Henry J .• 1945- III. Series. [DNLM : 1. Bohr. Niels Henrik DaVid. 1885-1962--Views on phIlosophy.] aC16.B65N493 1993 530' .01--dc20 DLC for Library of Congress 93-24825 ISBN 978-90-481-4299-6 ISBN 978-94-015-8106-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8106-6 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1994. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1994 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechancial, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Xl Introduction xiii MARA BELLER & ARTHUR FINE / Bohr's Response to EPR I 1. EPR and Bohr's EPR 2 2. Incompleteness and Inconsistency 3 3. Simultaneous Position and Momentum in EPR 6 4. Bohr's Concept of Disturbance: EPR and Before 10 5. Ambiguity and Definition 16 6. Positivism and Its Puzzles 18 7. Locality and Separability 23 8. Concluding Remarks 27 CATHERINE CHEVALLEY / Niels Bohr's Words and the Atlantis of Kantianism 33 1. Introduction 33 2. Anschauung and Symbol- In Bohr's Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics 35 3. Anschauung and Symbol - The Philosophical Background 43 4. Conclusions 50 4.1. Original Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics 50 4.2. Bohr's Conception of Language 51 4.3. Changing Perspectives 53 JAMES T. CUSHING / A Bohmian Response to Bohr's Complementarity 57 1. Introduction 57 2. The Project of "Clarifying" Bohr's Views 58 3. Bohr's Complementarity 61 4. Bohmian Mechanics 63 4.1. Bohm's (1952) Theory 64 4.2. Recent Developments 70 5. Conclusions 72 v VI TABLE OF CONTENTS DAVID FAVRHOLDT / Niels Bohr and Realism 77 I. Classical Concepts and Ordinary Language 77 2. What We Can Say About Reality 82 3. Subjective Idealism and Phenomenalism 84 4. A 'God's Eye View' of the World 86 5. Conclusion 94 JAN FAYE / Non-Locality or Non-Separability? A Defense of Bohr's Anti-Realist Approach to Quantum Mechanics 97 1. The Bohr-Einstein Debate in Retrospect 97 2. Non-Separability Anti-Realism 103 3. Non-Separability Realism 108 4. Non-Locality Realism 110 5. Non-Locality Anti-Realism 114 HENRY FOLSE / Bohr's Framework of Complementarity and the Realism Debate 119 I. Drawing the Battlelines: Bohr and Kant 120 2. Realism and the Atomic Description of Nature 123 3. Realism and Truth 127 4. Complementarity and the Realist Ideal of Understanding 134 5. Conclusion 137 JOHN HONNER / Description and Deconstruction: Niels Bohr and Modem Philosophy 141 I. Preamble 141 2. Bohr and the Philosophers 144 3. Derrida and Deconstruction 148 4. Bohr and the Description of Nature 151 CLIFFORD A. HOOKER / Bohr and the Crisis of Empirical Intelligibility: An Essay on the Depth of Bohr's Thought and Our Philosophical Ignorance 155 Part I. Bohr and the Kantian Legacy 155 1. Introduction 155 2. Reichenbach on Kant and Relativity Theory 158 Part II. Uniqueness and Rational Methodology: Newton and Kant 163 3. Kant, Newton and Rational Science 163 Part III. Bohr on Quantum Theory and Epistemology 174 TABLE OF CONTENTS VII 4. Bohr's Philosophical Lesson of Quantum Mechanics 174 5. Reichenbach and Bohr 178 6. Bohr's Conception of Intelligibility, Objectivity and Completeness 180 7. Einstein against Bohr 182 8. Bohr and Einstein versus Nature 185 9. Principled Ignorance, Adventures of Ideas and the Open Future 186 Appendix 1. Butts and Friedman on Kant's General Epistemological Framework 188 A. Overall Procedure 188 B. First Inference, to Metaphysical Principles of Pure Natural Science 189 C. Second Inference, to the Law of Universal Gravitation 194 DON HOWARD / What Makes a Classical Concept Classical? Toward a Reconstruction of Niels Bohr's Philosophy of Physics 201 1. Introduction 201 2. Objectivity and Unambiguous Description. Why Are Classical Concepts Important? 204 3. Instruments and Objects of Investigation. Where and How Are Classical Concepts to be Employed? 210 4. Of Mixtures and Pure Cases. What Makes a Classical Description Classical? 217 5. Does the Reconstruction Work? 223 PAUL HOYNINGEN-HUENE / Niels Bohr's Argument for the Irreducibility of Biology to Physics 231 1. Introduction 231 2. The Anti-Reductionist Claim 235 2.1. Explication of Concepts 236 2.2. The Relation of Bohr's Claim to Other Forms of Anti-Reductionism 238 3. The Argument for the Anti-Reductionist Claim 240 3.1. Bohr's Argument: An Analogical Inference 240 3.2. First Premise: Complementarity in Physics 241 3.3. Second Premise: Complementarity of Physics and Biology 249 3.4. Formal Reconstruction of Bohr's Argument 251 4. Critique of Bohr's Anti-Reductionist Argument 252 Vlll T ABLE OF CONTENTS DAVID KAISER / Niels Bohr's Conceptual Legacy in Contemporary Particle Physics 257 1. Introduction 257 2.. Bohr and Particle Physics: A Brief History 258 3. The Compound Nucleus and Particle Physics Phenomenology 259 4. Questions of Ontology and Particle Physics Phenomenology 262 5. Bohr's Realism and Particle Physics 264 6. Conclusions 266 HENRY KRIPS / A Critique Of Bohr's Local Realism 269 I. Introduction 269 2. Instrumentalism 269 3. Bohr's Philosophy 270 4. Bohr and Local Realism 271 5. Critique ofLocal Realism 273 EDWARD MACKINNON / Bohr and the Realism Debates 279 I. Perspectives and Presuppositions 280 2. Coping with A Linguistic Crisis 282 3. Interpreting Quantum Mechanics 286 4. Realism in Perspective 290 4.1. Einsteinian Realism 291 4.2. Scientific Realism 293 5. Realism and Analysis 297 DUGALD MURDOCH / The Bohr-Einstein Dispute 303 1. Einstein's Opposition to the Copenhagen Interpretation 303 2. The EPR Argument 305 3. Bohr 's Reply to the EPR Paper 306 4. Einstein's Argument 308 5. Bohr's Reponse to Einstein's Argument 311 6. The Philosophical Background to Einstein's Argument 315 7. The Dispute in 1935, and Thirty Years On 318 8. The Physical Dispute Reconsidered 322 ULRICH ROSEBERG / Hidden Historicity: The Challenge of Bohr 's Philosophical Thought 325 1. The Problem 325 2. Reichenbach's Rational Reconstruction of the Development of Quantum Mechanics 327 T ABLE OF CONTENTS IX 3. A Rational Reconstruction of the Development of Quantum Mechanics in the Dialectic Tradition 329 3.1. Bohr's Research Program 329 3.2. A Physicist Becomes a Philosopher 332 4. Hidden Historicity in Bohr's Epistemological Reflections 337 5. Concluding Remarks 340 HENRY P. STAPP / Quantum Theory and the Place of Mind in Nature 345 1. Mind in the Physical Sciences 345 2. The Objective Wave-Function 346 3. Integrating Consciousness into Physical Science 347 4. Future Prospects for the Copenhagen Interpretation 349 References 353 Name Index 373 PREFACE Since the Niels Bohr centenary of 1985 there has been an astonishing surge of publications on Bohr's philosophy. These contributions have appeared in a wide variety of different sources. While other volumes have collected a variety of essays on the many aspects of Bohr's work, hitherto there has been no col­ lection bringing the diversity of new philosophical interpretations between the covers of a single volume. Therefore, in this collection we have invited seven­ teen of today's best known authors who have helped shape this new round of discussions on Bohr's philosophy to address the question of Bohr's relation to issues currently discussed in contemporary philosophy of science. The sixteen previously unpublished papers included here reveal a surpris­ ing variety of different facets of Bohr as the natural philosopher whose ideas of complementarity shaped the final phase of the quantum revolution and influenced two generations of the century's leading physicists. Many of the questions discussed bear on the very active philosophical arena of realism versus anti-realism and the implications of the work stemming from the seminal contributions of John Bell. While our primary focus has been philo­ sophical, also discussed are important historical questions relating Bohr to Kant, neo-Kantians , and positivists. There is much on which the authors included here agree; but there are also polar disagreements, thus affording the reader an opportunity to compare and contrast new interpretations of Bohr as a philosopher. Indeed, the variety of differing opinions revealed in these papers assure us that the philosophical questions revolving around Bohr's "new viewpoint" will continue to be a subject of scholarly interest and discussion for years to come. It is our hope that this collection will interest all serious students of history and philosophy of science, as well as those readers interested in the foundations of physics and the philosophical implications of the quantum revolution. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our appreciation to all of our contributors, as well as to Bob Cohen. General Editor of the Boston Studies series, and to Annie Kuipers, Acquisitions Editor of Kluwer Academic Publishers, for their advice and encouragement in helping us to bring out this collection.
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