Cuffaro, Michael (2010) The Kantian framework of complementarity. Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies In History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 41 (4). pp. 309-317.

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Abstract

A growing number of commentators have, in recent years, noted the important affinities in the views of Immanuel Kant and Niels Bohr. While these commentators are correct, the picture they present of the connections between Bohr and Kant is painted in broad strokes; it is open to the criticism that these affinities are merely superficial. In this essay, I provide a closer, structural, analysis of both Bohr's and Kant's views that makes these connections more explicit. In particular, I demonstrate the similarities between Bohr's argument, on the one hand, that neither the wave nor the particle description of atomic phenomena pick out an object in the ordinary sense of the word, and Kant's requirement, on the other hand, that both 'mathematical' (having to do with magnitude) and 'dynamical' (having to do with an object's interaction with other objects) principles must be applicable to appearances in order for us to determine them as objects of experience. I argue that Bohr's 'complementarity interpretation' of quantum mechanics, which views atomic objects as idealizations, and which licenses the repeal of the principle of causality for the domain of atomic physics, is perfectly compatible with, and indeed follows naturally from a broadly Kantian epistemological framework.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Cuffaro, Michael mcuffaro@uwo.ca
Keywords:	Complementarity; Niels Bohr; Immanuel Kant; Copenhagen interpretation; Uncertainty principle; Quantum mechanics
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Explanation General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism General Issues > Philosophers of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Dr. Michael Cuffaro
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2011 15:20
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2011 15:20
Item ID:	8937
Journal or Publication Title:	Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies In History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Publisher:	Elsevier
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2010.04.003
Subjects:	General Issues > Causation General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Explanation General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism General Issues > Philosophers of Science Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	November 2010
Page Range:	pp. 309-317
Volume:	41
Number:	4
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8937

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  • The Kantian framework of complementarity. (deposited 09 Dec 2011 15:20) [Currently Displayed]

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