Quantum Physics and Ordinary Language - Hardcover

Bergstein, T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0333141563 ISBN 13: 9780333141564

Publisher: Macmillan, 1972

Synopsis

The concept of complementarity -- well known in connection with the 'wave' and 'particle' explanations of sub-atomic behaviour -- refers to the co-existence of two theories whose partial accounts of the facts will together give a more complete view. In this book the author seeks to show that this condition of complementarity can be applied, in a more general way, to the interaction of quantum physics and ordinary language. He is thus writing both for philosophers and for scientists who are concerned with the meaning of quantum physics and the conceptual difficulties of its theoretical formulation. The main purpose of the book is to make the relation of complementarity more widely known and to show how it is indispensable to human comprehension and communication of experience. In order to base the argument on solid ground, the first part of the book deals with those particular features of quantum physics which most directly show the necessity of a complementary mode of description in atomic physics. To avoid misunderstandings due to the traditional, ontological way of thinking, the necessity of Niels Bohr's interpretation of the quantum formalism is demon- strated through an exposition of the essential arguments in the discussion between Bohr and Einstein regarding the epistemological problems involved when describing atomic objects. The subsequent chapters show how complementarity is a serious challenge to ontological philosophy. In the final chapter it is put forward that the interdependence of the phenomenological and conceptual levels of experience seems to be a necessary condition for the child's acquisition of language as well as for all kinds of interaction of language and mind. This condition is believed to be bound up with a fundamental complementarity of language itself.

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0333141563
• ISBN 13: 9780333141564
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 76