Does Quantum Theory Redefine Realism? The Neo-Copenhagen View

Abstract

Foundational attitudes towards quantum theory have recently thrown off much of the old philosophical baggage largely associated with Niels Bohr to which Einstein famously objected, including the central ‘collapse of the wavefunction’ concept. A ‘neo-Copenhagen’ interpretation, it is suggested, has arisen. This development is placed in its historical context and contrasted to philosophical allegations of anti-realism. The neo-Copenhagen interpretation remains wedded to Heisenberg's uncertainty and observer-dependent values of particles. However a discussion of Nick Herbert's ‘rainbow analogy’ suggests that subatomic particles are emergent from a ‘nonlocal’ level of reality outside the domain of space and time. Critical realism recognizes that emergent systems have an irreducibly ontologically character, and in its combination of epistemological relativism and ontological realism, provides a basis for the proposition that realists who support Einstein's objections must now recognize that their realism must be redefined.

Keywords:

• Copenhagen interpretation
• emergence
• neo-Copenhagen interpretation
• nonlocality
• quantum theory
• realism

Notes

  1 Kuhn 1957, 230.

  2 Quoted by Gribbin 2012, 283–4.

  3 Herbert 1987, 15.

  4 Einstein et al. 1935, 777.

  5 Bohm 1957, 110.

  6 Keat and Urry 1975, 9 n. 1; Norris 2000, 2.

  7 Einstein et al. 1935, 777, original emphasis.

  8 Norris 2000, 26.

  9 Herbert 1987, 162.

 10 Cf. Wallace 2010, 52–60; d'Espagnat 2006, 347–50.

 11 Herbert 1987, 159.

 12 Bhaskar 1986, 5.

 13 Bhaskar 1986, 104, esp. n. 1a; Steinmetz 1998, 178.

 14 Bhaskar 1986, ch. 1, esp. 24 and 65–73; Steinmetz 1998, 174.

 15 Kuhn 1957, 230.

 16 Bhaskar 1986, 16.

 17 Assiter 2013, 283.

 18 Psillos 2007, 398.

 19 Assiter 2013, 284–5.

 20 Hartwig 2007, 97.

 21 Hartwig 2007, 97.

 22 Bhaskar 1986, 55.

 23 Assiter 2013, 286.

 24 Cited in Neffe 2007, 331.

 25 Cited in Neffe 2007, 330.

 26 Even as the ‘modern form of dialectics’, Jacobsen 2007, 12.

 27 Lindley 2008, 200.

 28 Norris 2000, 30.

 29 Gribbin 2012, 143.

 30 Herbert 1987, 147.

 31 Herbert 1987, 17, original emphasis.

 32 Heisenberg 2000, 14.

 33 Heisenberg 2000, 43–4.

 34 Cf. Tong 2011.

 35 Tong 2012, 37.

 36 Tong 2011, 4, emphasis in original; Cox and Forshaw 2011, 40.

 37 Makela 2011. Newton was in agreement: [1687] 2003, 1158.

 38 Cf. Aczel 2003; Gribbin 1984, 222–23; Bell 2008.

 39 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 27.

 40 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 30.

 41 Heisenberg 1958, 83.

 42 Tong 2011, 4–5.

 43 Bhaskar [1975] 2008, 113; cf. Wallace 2010.

 44 Bhaskar 1993, 78: ‘It is a (deep but) contingent fact that the world reveals ontological stratification — of many layers of depth, in many different dimensions.’

 45 Norris 2000, 1.

 46 Engels 1968, 597.

 47 Bhaskar 1986, 102.

 48 Bhaskar 1986, 50.

 49 Hegel 1998, 368, original emphasis.

 50 Bhaskar 1986, 27–33.

 51 Bhaskar 1986, 72–3.

 52 Bhaskar 1986, 18–19.

 53 Bhaskar 1986, 18–19.

 54 Bhaskar [1975] 2008, 30.

 55 Bohm 1957.

 56 Bohm 1957, 65; 98.

 57 Einstein et al. 1935, 777.

 58 Jacobsen 2007, 15.

 59 Norris 2000, 1. There is no definitive definition of the Copenhagen interpretation. Origin cf. Heisenberg 2000, 14–25. and Gribbin [1984] 1996, 173.

 60 Herbert 1987, 147 (but note that terminology changes over time).

 61 Cf. Herbert 1987, 142–56.

 62 Neffe 2007, 330.

 63 Gribbin 2012, 142.

 64 Herbert 1987, 240.

 65 Herbert 1987, 157–97.

 66 Gribbin 2012, 255.

 67 Al-Khalili 2004, 139–40. Cf. Cox and Forshaw 2011, 12.

 68 Schlosshauer et al. 2013. Thanks to Anindya Bhattacharya for pointing this survey out to me.

 69 Norris 2000, 106–64.

 70 Schlosshauer et al 2013, 222.

 71 Schlosshauer et al 2013, 225.

 72 Gribbin 2012, 182.

 73 Gribbin 2012, 283–4.

 74 Castelvecchi 2010.

 75 Castelvecchi 2010, 10.

 76 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 28, original emphasis.

 77 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 32.

 78 Bohm 1950, 608.

 79 Wallace 2010, 61.

 80 Kastner 2013, 14.

 81 Wallace 2010, 62, 65.

 82 Cartwright 1983, 163–74.

 83 Cartwright 1983, 163.

 84 Cartwright 1983, 195.

 85 Cartwright 1983, 196.

 86 Quoted in Cartwright 1983, 165.

 87 Wallace 2010, 70.

 88 Cartwright 1983, 171.

 89 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 188–9.

 90 Cartwright 1983, 171.

 91 Tegmark 2010, 556.

 92 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 189.

 93 Wallace 2010, 67; original emphasis.

 94 Wallace 2010, 67.

 95 Vedral 2011.

 96 Cox 2014.

 97 E.g. Bohm 1971, 96.

 98 Cf. Al-Khalili 2004, 108.

 99 D'Espagnat 2006, 178; Cox and Forshaw 2011, 30.

100 Wallace 2010, 61.

101 Herbert 1987, 223.

102 Bell 2008, 14–21.

103 Herbert 1987, 245, original emphasis.

104 Bohm 1957, 69.

105 Cf. Bell 2008, 14–21; Aczel 2003; Gribbin 1984, 222–4.

106 Aczel 2003 gives a very good account.

107 Norris 2000, 22.

108 Norris 2000, 86; cf. Cox and Forshaw 2011, 47.

109 Norris 2000, 80; Herbert 1987, 244.

110 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 47.

111 Herbert 1987, 249.

112 Lindley 2008, 147.

113 Herbert 1987, 159.

114 D'Espagnat 2006, 460.

115 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 4.

116 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 46; 73; 90; 140; 213; 215–42.

117 Bohm 1971, 96.

118 Norris 2000, 33–4.

119 Bell 2008, xi.

120 Bohm 1971, 87 and elsewhere.

121 Kumar 2008, 355.

122 Quoted by Lindley 2008, 208.

123 Norris 2000, 5, original emphasis.

124 Norris 2000, 35.

125 Heisenberg 2000, 74.

126 D'Espagnat 2006, 45.

127 Norris 2000, 35.

128 Bhaskar 1986, 43–4.

129 Bhaskar [1979] 1998, 8.

130 Keynes 1942; Newton 2003, 1159.

131 Quoted by Arianrhod 2012, 17.

132 Arianrhod 2012, 22.

133 E.g. Engels 1968, 597 and elsewhere.

134 It was Galileo who first discovered that space was relative.

135 Norris 2000, 31.

136 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 12.

137 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 213.

138 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 13.

139 Cited in Lindley 2008, 131.

140 Carroll 2012, 130; 261–2.

141 Cox and Forshaw 2011, 213.

142 Bohm 1957, 103. Cf. Bhaskar 1986, 50.

143 NASA press release: “WMAP Produces New Results,” http://magsfc.nasa.gov/news, accessed 8 April 2013.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Stuart Mason

Peter Stuart Mason works for the Socialist Party. He writes occasionally for The Socialist newspaper and Socialism Today on science and the environment and is author of the short polemic, Science, Marxism and the Big Bang (Socialist Publications, 2012).

Correspondence to: Pete Mason, Socialist Party, PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD, UK. Email: [email protected]