The Trace of Pragmatism in Niels Bohr’s Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Subject Areas : Philosophy

سید رضا  ملیح ¹ (ندارد)
افسانه  آشکاری ² (ندارد)

Received: 2010-04-06 Accepted : 2011-03-21 Published : 2009-03-21

Keywords: Copenhagen interpretation, logical positivism, Pragmatism,

Abstract :

It is a common view that, most of the elements of Copenhageninterpretation, as the first and the most famous interpretation ofquantum mechanics, is rooted historically and philosophically, logicalpositivism. The aim of this paper is to show that, philosophically,pragmatism supports Copenhagen interpretation more intensively,whether or not the initiators of the interpretation, such as Niels Bohr asthe most important figure of the interpretation, were aware of that. Weproclaim that some elements of the interpretation, which are consistentwith logical positivism, are perfectly supported by pragmatism. Someof these elements are: weak objectivism, senselessness of the conceptof “thing in itself”, instrumentalist approaches to theories, and theavoidance to deal with ontological issues irrespective of experiment.Furthermore, and more particularly, it is argued that pragmatismespouses some of other fundamental and important elements ofCopenhagen interpretation such as holism, uncertainty principle, andcomplementarity.