Abstract

One of the most striking features of the epistemological situation of Quantum Mechanics is the number of interpretations and the many schools of thought, with no consensus on the way to understand the theory. In this article, I introduce a distinction between orthodox interpretations and heterodox interpretations of Quantum Mechanics: the orthodox interpretations preserve all the quantum principles while the heterodox interpretations replace at least one of them. Then, I argue that we have strong empirical and epistemological reasons to prefer orthodox interpretations to heterodox interpretations. The first argument is that all the experiments on the foundations of Quantum Mechanics give a high degree of corroboration to the quantum principles and, consequently, to the orthodox interpretations. The second argument is that the scientific progress needs a consensus: this consensus is impossible with the heterodox interpretations, while it is possible with the orthodox interpretations. Giving the preference to the orthodox interpretations is a reasonable position which could preserve both a consensus on quantum principles and a plurality of views on Quantum Mechanics.