Karl Popper and the Copenhagen interpretation
Abstract
Popper conceived an experiment whose analysis led to a result that he deemed absurd. Popper wrote that his reasoning was based on the Copenhagen interpretation and therefore invalidated it. Many authors who have examined Popper's analysis have found in it various technical flaws which are briefly summarized here. However, the aim of the present article is not technical. My concern is to redress logical flaws in Popper's argument: the terminology he uses is ambiguous, his analysis involves counterfactual hypotheses, and it violates Bohr's complementarity principle. Therefore, the absurdity of Popper's result only confirms Bohr's approach.
- Publication:
-
Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
- Pub Date:
- 2002
- DOI:
- 10.1016/S1355-2198(01)00034-X
- Bibcode:
- 2002SHPMP..33...23P
- Keywords:
-
- Popper's experiment;
- Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox;
- No signalling theorem;
- Copenhagen interpretation