Abstract |
Popper conceived an experiment whose analysis led to a result that he deemed absurd. Popper wrote that his reasoning was based on the Copenhagen interpretation and therefore invalidated it. Many authors who have examined Popper's analysis have found in it various technical flaws which are briefly summarized here. However, the aim of the present article is not technical. My concern is to redress logical flaws in Popper's argument: the terminology he uses is ambiguous, his analysis involves counterfactual hypotheses, and it violates Bohr's complementarity principle. Therefore, the absurdity of Popper's result only confirms Bohr's approach.
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DOI | 10.1016/s1355-2198(01)00034-x |
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References found in this work BETA
Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky & Nathan Rosen - 1935 - Physical Review (47):777-780.
Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics: From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery.Karl Raimund Popper - 1982 - Routledge.
Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics.Niels Bohr - 1949 - In Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.), The Library of Living Philosophers, Volume 7. Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. Open Court. pp. 199--241.
Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?Niels Bohr - 1935 - Physical Review 48 (696--702):696--702.
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Citations of this work BETA
Constructing the Myth of the Copenhagen Interpretation.Kristian Camilleri - 2009 - Perspectives on Science 17 (1):pp. 26-57.
When Champions Meet: Rethinking the Bohr–Einstein Debate.Nicolaas P. Landsman - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (1):212-242.
A New Book of Numbers: On the Precise Definition of Quantum Variables and the Relationships Between Mathematics and Physics in Quantum Theory. [REVIEW]Arkady Plotnitsky - 2006 - Foundations of Physics 36 (1):30-60.
Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-Like Experiment and its Resonance Amongst the Physics Community in the 1980s.Flavio Del Santo - 2018 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 62:56-70.
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