Copenhagen Interpretation is WHAT?
Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:33 am
This came from so I'm passing to anyone.
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Werner Heisenberg, "Philosophical Problems of Quantum Physics", p. 97:
"Pure Being contracted to a point, but it could repeat itself any number of times; it became indivisible and indestructible and hence it was called 'atom'. The world was reduced to atoms and the empty space between them."
Niels Bohr, "Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature", p. 98:
"...In particular, the apparent contrast between the continuous outward flow of associative thinking and the preservation of the unity of personality exhibits a suggestive analogy with the relation between the wave description of the motions of material particles, governed by the superposition principle, and their indestructible individuality."
These two quotes together, from the two principal founders of quantum theory, establish beyond the shadow of any doubt that the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics is profoundly ontological and metaphysical in character. The physical world comprised of aggregates of atomic particles cannot be primary, because the atomic particles are not primary. Rather they come into being by a descending process of emanation from a non-physical realm of "Pure Being". They can also, therefore, pass out of being, which means that the creation and destruction operators of quantum field theory describe real processes of unfolding and enfolding, as David Bohm has claimed. This is nothing new, however - it was precisely the view of the founders.
The second quote, from Niels Bohr, makes clear that the material particles are not just figments of our imagination - they possess, in contrast to our description of them an "indestructible individuality", which is like Kant's noumenon insofar as it is essentially unknowable, and yet the implicit basis for what we can know. Similarly, we are not figments of our own imagination. Our "unity of personality" is in contrast to "the continuous outward flow of associative thinking", which is precisely our "stream of consciousness". Although our unity of personality can become a content of the stream of consciousness, insofar as we can know who we are and insofar as all of our perceptions have a self-referential possiblity, the unity of personality is *in contrast* to the outward flow of the "stream of consciousness" and it cannot therefore be reduced to it or to a content of it.
Henry Stapp, who was an intimate student of both Heisenberg and Pauli, argues against the crystal clear logic presented here, and by his tortured logic claims that neither the unity of personality of the observer or the indestructible individuality of the observed are anything but features of the stream of consciousness, on the one hand, and the wave description of the motions of material particles, on the other hand. Such is the distortion practiced by one of the greatest of living physicists, to say nothing of the hacks, who haven't even got a clue.
Stapp has for years been teaching that the Copenhagen Interpretation is non-ontological and merely pragmatic. This confusion stems from an unfamiliarity with modern phenomenology, ala Descartes and Husserl, wherein the foundation of all existence is found in absolute self-existent consciousness, rather that in a self-existent material or physical world. More profoundly, the confusion stems from ignorance due to lack of experience of absolute self-existent consciousness. Bohr's denial of the existence of a self-existent material or physical world is by no means a "non-ontological" stance - rather it is the profound affirmation of the only ontological system that passes muster, namely that associated with the phenomenological philosophy of Descartes and Husserl. Bohr's actual words only make sense in that context - they do not make sense in the context of the tortured logic that Stapp attempts to apply to them.
What is at stake is not just the correct interpretation of the present quantum theory, but what the founders felt to be the key to the next generation of quantum theory, which will be stillborn unless the truth comes out about what the Copenhagen Interpretation really is:
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Trickfox
******************locality begins************
Werner Heisenberg, "Philosophical Problems of Quantum Physics", p. 97:
"Pure Being contracted to a point, but it could repeat itself any number of times; it became indivisible and indestructible and hence it was called 'atom'. The world was reduced to atoms and the empty space between them."
Niels Bohr, "Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature", p. 98:
"...In particular, the apparent contrast between the continuous outward flow of associative thinking and the preservation of the unity of personality exhibits a suggestive analogy with the relation between the wave description of the motions of material particles, governed by the superposition principle, and their indestructible individuality."
These two quotes together, from the two principal founders of quantum theory, establish beyond the shadow of any doubt that the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics is profoundly ontological and metaphysical in character. The physical world comprised of aggregates of atomic particles cannot be primary, because the atomic particles are not primary. Rather they come into being by a descending process of emanation from a non-physical realm of "Pure Being". They can also, therefore, pass out of being, which means that the creation and destruction operators of quantum field theory describe real processes of unfolding and enfolding, as David Bohm has claimed. This is nothing new, however - it was precisely the view of the founders.
The second quote, from Niels Bohr, makes clear that the material particles are not just figments of our imagination - they possess, in contrast to our description of them an "indestructible individuality", which is like Kant's noumenon insofar as it is essentially unknowable, and yet the implicit basis for what we can know. Similarly, we are not figments of our own imagination. Our "unity of personality" is in contrast to "the continuous outward flow of associative thinking", which is precisely our "stream of consciousness". Although our unity of personality can become a content of the stream of consciousness, insofar as we can know who we are and insofar as all of our perceptions have a self-referential possiblity, the unity of personality is *in contrast* to the outward flow of the "stream of consciousness" and it cannot therefore be reduced to it or to a content of it.
Henry Stapp, who was an intimate student of both Heisenberg and Pauli, argues against the crystal clear logic presented here, and by his tortured logic claims that neither the unity of personality of the observer or the indestructible individuality of the observed are anything but features of the stream of consciousness, on the one hand, and the wave description of the motions of material particles, on the other hand. Such is the distortion practiced by one of the greatest of living physicists, to say nothing of the hacks, who haven't even got a clue.
Stapp has for years been teaching that the Copenhagen Interpretation is non-ontological and merely pragmatic. This confusion stems from an unfamiliarity with modern phenomenology, ala Descartes and Husserl, wherein the foundation of all existence is found in absolute self-existent consciousness, rather that in a self-existent material or physical world. More profoundly, the confusion stems from ignorance due to lack of experience of absolute self-existent consciousness. Bohr's denial of the existence of a self-existent material or physical world is by no means a "non-ontological" stance - rather it is the profound affirmation of the only ontological system that passes muster, namely that associated with the phenomenological philosophy of Descartes and Husserl. Bohr's actual words only make sense in that context - they do not make sense in the context of the tortured logic that Stapp attempts to apply to them.
What is at stake is not just the correct interpretation of the present quantum theory, but what the founders felt to be the key to the next generation of quantum theory, which will be stillborn unless the truth comes out about what the Copenhagen Interpretation really is:
****************locality ends************************
Trickfox