Abstract
Scientists of the late 1920s, led by Bohr and Heisenberg, proposed a conception of nature radically different from that of their predecessors. The new conception, which grew out of efforts to comprehend the apparently irrational behavior of nature in the realm of quantum effects, was not simply a new catalog of the elementary spacetime realities and their modes of operation. It was essentially a rejection of the presumption that nature could be understood in terms of elementary spacetime realities. According to the new view, the complete description of nature at the atomic level was given by probability functions that referred not to underlying microscopic space-time realities but rather to the macroscopic objects of sense experience. The theoretical structure did not extend down and anchor itself on fundamental microscopic spacetime realities. Instead it turned back and anchored itself in the concrete sense realities that form the basis of social life.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
K. R. Popper and M. Bunge, in Quantum Theory and Reality, edited by M. Bunge (Springer, New York, 1967).
L. E. Ballentine, Rev. Mod. Phys. 42, 358 (1970).
E. Bastin (editor), Quantum Theory and Beyond (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970);
L. Rosenfeld, Suppl. Prog. Theoret. Phys. (extra number) 222 (1965);
J. M. Jauch, E. P. Wigner, and M. M. Yanase, Nuovo Cimento 48B, 144 (1967);
L. Rosenfeld, Nucl. Phys. A 108, 241 (1968);
A. Loinger, Nucl. Phys. A 108, 245 (1968);
A. Fine, Phys. Rev. D 2, 2783 (1970).
N. Bohr, Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1934);
N. Bohr, Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (Wiley, New York, 1958);
N. Bohr, Essays 1958/1962 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (Wiley, New York, 1963).
W. Heisenberg, The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (Dover, New York, 1930);
W. Heisenberg, in Niels Bohr and the Development of Physics, edited by W. Pauli (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1955), p. 12;
W. Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (Harper and Row, New York, 1958);
W. Heisenberg, Daedalus 87, 95 (1958).
C. F. von Weizsäcker, in Quantum Theory and Beyond, edited by E. Bastin (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970).
J. von Neumann, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1955).
E. Wigner, Am. J. Phys. 31, 6 (1963).
G. Ludwig, in Werner Heisenberg und der Physik unserer Zeit (Friedrich Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1961).
E. Wigner, in The Scientist Speculates, edited by I. J. Good (Basic Books, New York, 1962), p. 284.
H. Everett III, Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 454 (1957).
J. A. Wheeler, Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 463 (1957).
Bryce DeWitt, Phys. Today 23, 30 (Sept. 1970).
L. Rosenfeld, Nucl. Phys. A 108, 241 (1968).
D. Bohm, Phys. Rev. 85, 166, 180 (1952).
J. S. Bell, Physics 1, 195 (1964) and Varenna Lectures, Preprint TH.1220-CERN, Aug. 1970. See also ref. 21.
W. James, The Meaning of Truth (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1970). This reference to James does not mean that the ideas reviewed in this section are exactly those of James or wholly those of James. Countless philosophers have said similar things.
Ref. 17, p. 239.
Ref. 17, p. 217.
A. Einstein, in Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist, edited by P. A. Schilpp (Tudor, New York, 1951), p. 675.
H. P. Stapp, Phys. Rev. D 3, 1303 (1971).
N. Bohr, Phys. Rev. 48, 696 (1935); and in ref. 20, p. 201.
A. Einstein, in ref. 20, p. 665.
For an interesting and very readable account of the four principal conceptual structures that have been advanced as the basis of overall world views see S. C. Pepper, World Hypothesis (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1970).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stapp, H.P. (2004). The Copenhagen Interpretation. In: Mind, Matter and Quantum Mechanics. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05369-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05369-0_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-05371-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-05369-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive