Abstract
Following Niels Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics as complementarity, this article argues that quantum mechanics may be seen as a theory of, in N. David Mermin's words, “correlations without correlata,” understood here as the correlations between certain physical events in the classical macro world that at the same time disallow us to ascertain their quantum-level correlata.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
N. David Mermin, Boojums All The Way Through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990).
Niels Bohr, The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr, 3 vols. (Ox Bow Press, Woodbridge, CT, 1987).
John Archibald Wheeler and Wojciech Hubert Zurek, eds., Quantum Theory and Measurement (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1983).
N. David Mermin, “What Is Quantum Mechanics Trying to Tell Us?” Am. J. Phys. 66, 9, 753–67 (1998).
Carlo Rovelli, “'Incerto Tempore, Incertisque Loci': Can we compute the exact time at which a quantum measurement happens, ” Found. Phys. 28, 7, 1031–43 (1998).
John Bell, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987).
Arkady Plotnitsky, “Reading Bohr: Complementarity, epistemology, entanglement, and decoherence, ” in Decoherence and its Implications in Quantum Computation and Information Transfer, Tony Gonis and Patrice E. A. Turchi, eds. (IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2001).
Ole Ulfbeck and Aage Bohr, “Genuine fortuitousness: Where did that click come from?” Found. Phys. 31, 5, 575–774 (2001).
Arkady Plotnitsky, “Quantum atomicity and quantum information: Bohr, Heisenberg, and quantum mechanics as an information theory, ” in Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations (Proceedings of the Conference, Växjö (Smaland), Sweden, 17–21 June, 2001), Andrei Khrennikov, ed. (Växjö University Press, Växjö, 2002).
Henry P. Stapp, “Nonlocal character of quantum theory”, Am. J. Phys. 65, 300–04 (1997).
N. David Mermin, “Nonlocal character of quantum theory?”, Am. J. Phys. 66, 920–24 (1998).
Henry Folse, “Niels Bohr's concept of reality”, in Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics 1987: The Copenhagen Interpretation 60 Years after the Como Lecture, Pekka Lahti and Peter Mittelstaedt, eds. (World Scientific, Singapore, 1987), pp. 161–80.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Plotnitsky, A. Mysteries Without Mysticism and Correlations Without Correlata: On Quantum Knowledge and Knowledge in General. Foundations of Physics 33, 1649–1689 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026065218214
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026065218214