dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaWhen champions meet: Rethinking the Bohr--Einstein debate
| Authors | N. P. Landsman |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0507220 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507220 |
Abstract
Einstein's philosophy of physics (as clarified by Fine, Howard, and Held) was predicated on his Trennungsprinzip, a combination of separability and locality, without which he believed objectification, and thereby "physical thought" and "physical laws", to be impossible. Bohr's philosophy (as elucidated by Hooker, Scheibe, Folse, Howard, Held, and others), on the other hand, was grounded in a seemingly different doctrine about the possibility of objective knowledge, namely the necessity of classical concepts. In fact, it follows from Raggio's Theorem in algebraic quantum theory that - within an appropriate class of physical theories - suitable mathematical translations of the doctrines of Bohr and Einstein are equivalent. Thus - upon our specific formalization - quantum mechanics accommodates Einstein's Trennungsprinzip if and only if it is interpreted a la Bohr through classical physics. Unfortunately, the protagonists themselves failed to discuss their differences in this constructive way, since their debate was dominated by Einstein's ingenious but ultimately flawed attempts to establish the "incompleteness" of quantum mechanics. This aspect of their debate may still be understood and appreciated, however, as reflecting a much deeper and insurmountable disagreement between Bohr and Einstein on the knowability of Nature. Using the theological controversy on the knowability of God as a analogy, Einstein was a Spinozist, whereas Bohr could be said to be on the side of Maimonides. Thus Einstein's off-the-cuff characterization of Bohr as a 'Talmudic philosopher' was spot-on.
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"abstract": "Einstein\u0027s philosophy of physics (as clarified by Fine, Howard, and Held) was\npredicated on his Trennungsprinzip, a combination of separability and locality,\nwithout which he believed objectification, and thereby \"physical thought\" and\n\"physical laws\", to be impossible. Bohr\u0027s philosophy (as elucidated by Hooker,\nScheibe, Folse, Howard, Held, and others), on the other hand, was grounded in a\nseemingly different doctrine about the possibility of objective knowledge,\nnamely the necessity of classical concepts. In fact, it follows from Raggio\u0027s\nTheorem in algebraic quantum theory that - within an appropriate class of\nphysical theories - suitable mathematical translations of the doctrines of Bohr\nand Einstein are equivalent. Thus - upon our specific formalization - quantum\nmechanics accommodates Einstein\u0027s Trennungsprinzip if and only if it is\ninterpreted a la Bohr through classical physics. Unfortunately, the\nprotagonists themselves failed to discuss their differences in this\nconstructive way, since their debate was dominated by Einstein\u0027s ingenious but\nultimately flawed attempts to establish the \"incompleteness\" of quantum\nmechanics.\n This aspect of their debate may still be understood and appreciated, however,\nas reflecting a much deeper and insurmountable disagreement between Bohr and\nEinstein on the knowability of Nature. Using the theological controversy on the\nknowability of God as a analogy, Einstein was a Spinozist, whereas Bohr could\nbe said to be on the side of Maimonides. Thus Einstein\u0027s off-the-cuff\ncharacterization of Bohr as a \u0027Talmudic philosopher\u0027 was spot-on.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0507220",
"authors": [
"N. P. Landsman"
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"title": "When champions meet: Rethinking the Bohr--Einstein debate",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0507220"
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