Abstract
A growing number of commentators have, in recent years, noted the important affinities in the views of Immanuel Kant and Niels Bohr. While these commentators are correct, the picture they present of the connections between Bohr and Kant is painted in broad strokes; it is open to the criticism that these affinities are merely superficial. In this essay, I provide a closer, structural, analysis of both Bohr's and Kant's views that makes these connections more explicit. In particular, I demonstrate the similarities between Bohr's argument, on the one hand, that neither the wave nor the particle description of atomic phenomena pick out an object in the ordinary sense of the word, and Kant's requirement, on the other hand, that both `mathematical' (having to do with magnitude) and `dynamical' (having to do with an object's interaction with other objects) principles must be applicable to appearances in order for us to determine them as objects of experience. I argue that Bohr's `complementarity interpretation' of quantum mechanics, which views atomic objects as idealizations, and which licenses the repeal of the principle of causality for the domain of atomic physics, is perfectly compatible with, and indeed follows naturally from a broadly Kantian epistemological framework.
| Dokumententyp: | Zeitschriftenartikel |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Complementarity; Niels Bohr; Immanuel Kant; Copenhagen interpretation; Uncertainty principle; Quantum mechanics |
| Fakultät: | Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP)
Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Religionswissenschaft > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) > Philosophy of Physics |
| Themengebiete: | 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 100 Philosophie |
| ISSN: | 1355-2198 |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Dokumenten ID: | 21009 |
| Datum der Veröffentlichung auf Open Access LMU: | 03. Jul. 2014, 06:43 |
| Letzte Änderungen: | 04. Nov. 2020, 13:01 |
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