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Work #1484 · Mid-career, post-EPR

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

Niels Bohr
1935 · English
Scientific paper · Copenhagen interpretation / philosophy of quantum mechanics

Bohr's 1935 reply to EPR — complementarity and the inseparability of system from measuring apparatus

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? (Mid-career, post-EPR)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Relational
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom NDet
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Relational
Space · Curvature Curved
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Non-local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Relational
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Non-local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Limited
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Relational
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Discrete

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

Bohr's reply submitted 13 July 1935, published 15 October 1935 — five months after EPR's 15 May 1935 publication.

Space

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

Copenhagen Institute — Bohr's institutional base. The geographical-political space is pre-war Europe; both Einstein (in Princeton) and Bohr (in Copenhagen) were responding to the philosophical implications of the new quantum mechanics.

Matter

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

Single Physical Review paper (~7 pages). Form is technical-physical with substantial philosophical argument.

Observer

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

Bohr as defender of the Copenhagen interpretation. The observer-physicist is at the height of his interpretive-philosophical authority over the quantum-mechanical community.

Energy

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

High-stakes polemical-philosophical energies of the EPR moment. The Bohr-Einstein dispute was the central philosophical controversy in twentieth-century physics.

Information

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

Seven-page paper of huge philosophical import. The 'whole experimental arrangement' argument is the central informational structure.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?

The canonical Bohrian reply to EPR; the origin of the modern philosophical literature on quantum non-locality. Bell's 1964 'On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox' (which proved that local hidden variables could not reproduce quantum predictions, opening the way to the 1972 Freedman-Clauser and 1982 Aspect experiments) emerged from continued reflection on the EPR-Bohr exchange; the contemporary literature on quantum foundations remains shaped by this 1935 dispute.