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> From: Allin Cottrell <cottrell@wfu.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <ope-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu>
> Subject: [OPE-L:4977] Re: ideal vs real value
> Date: 12 May 1997 15:06
>
> A brief caveat re. Paul's invocation of Einstein vs. Bohr.
> Bohr's position on quantum mechanics did not stem from a
> general anti-realist philosophical orientation; rather it
> was based on the specific scientific problems that arise in
> attempting a realist interpretation of quantum mechanics in
> particular. Unless you postulate a system of hidden
> variables of a particularly complex sort -- which tends to
> fall foul of Occam, since this apparatus gives no predictive
> advantage whatever -- realism in re. quantum mechanics gives
> predictions incompatible with the experimental results.
>
> Allin Cottrell
You may be right about Bohr personally, though I
am not so sure, certainly many philosophical presentations
of the Copenhagen view present it as treating measurement
as essential to consitituting reality.
As to incompatibility with realism that
depends on ones view of determinism and temporal
reversibility. If one assumes temporal symetry
this is not the case.