Vafiadis, James (2026) To Be is to Measure: A Transcendental Reading of Bohr and the Participatory Conditions of Objectivity. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Quantum mechanics reconfigures classical assumptions about objectivity by showing that physical description cannot be separated from the processes through which phenomena become intelligible. While Niels Bohr is often read as an instrumentalist or cautious anti-realist, this paper argues instead that his account of measurement advances a transcendental analysis of the conditions under which physical properties can count as objective at all. On this reading, complementarity is not a limit on access to an underlying reality, but a constraint on the forms of description through which physical properties become determinate and communicable. Drawing on a neo-Kantian perspective, I argue that objectivity in quantum theory is neither representational nor observer-independent but is realised through participatory conditions that anchor physical meaning within shared spatio-temporal and causal frameworks. The slogan ‘to be is to measure’ is defended as shorthand for the claim that objective physical properties are not revealed as pre-existing features of nature but arise only within experimental contexts that disclose them as intelligible objects within a shared mode of possible experience.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | quantum mechanics; objectivity; Niels Bohr; complementarity; observer-dependence; participation; measurement | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. James Vafiadis | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 29 May 2026 12:38 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 29 May 2026 12:38 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 29795 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism |
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| Date: | 2 February 2026 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29795 |
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