Abstract
The objective of this article is to demonstrate how the historical debate between materialism and idealism, in the field of Philosophy, extends, in new clothes, to the field of Quantum Physics characterized by realism and anti-realism. For this, we opted for a debate, also historical, between the realism of Albert Einstein, for whom reality exists regardless of the existence of the knowing subject, and Niels Bohr, for whom we do not have access to the ultimate reality of the matter, unless conditioning it to the existence of an observer endowed with rationality, position adopted in the Interpretation of Complementarity (1927) – posture that was expanded in 1935 when Bohr assumed a “relationalist” conception, according to which the quantum state is defined by the relationship between the quantum object and the entire measuring device. This is an extremely important debate, as it further consolidates the results of nascent Quantum Mechanics, guaranteeing Bohr the leadership of the orthodoxy based on the interpretation of complementarity. Here, when dealing with Quantum Theory, we will not make any distinction between the terms Quantum Physics, Quantum Theory or Quantum Mechanics. The entire discussion will be held under the name “Quantum Theory”. Theory that tries to analyze and describe the behavior of physical systems of reduced dimensions, close to the sizes of molecules, atoms and subatomic particles. We hope that the reader will appreciate the genius of these two titans in this field of Physics when they magnificently formulate the arguments that support the object of their defenses.
Highlights
The history of realism and anti-realism in twentieth-century Physics is, the unfolding of older discussions in Philosophy, which involve a debate between materialists and idealists about the nature of reality
The objective of this article is to demonstrate how the historical debate between materialism and idealism, in the field of Philosophy, extends, in new clothes, to the field of Quantum Physics characterized by realism and antirealism
We opted for a debate, historical, between the realism of Albert Einstein, for whom reality exists regardless of the existence of the knowing subject, and Niels Bohr, for whom we do not have access to the ultimate reality of the matter, unless conditioning it to the existence of an observer endowed with rationality, position adopted in the Interpretation of Complementarity (1927) – posture that was expanded in 1935 when Bohr assumed a “relationalist” conception, according to which the quantum state is defined by the relationship between the quantum object and the entire measuring device
Summary
The history of realism and anti-realism in twentieth-century Physics is, the unfolding of older discussions in Philosophy, which involve a debate between materialists and idealists about the nature of reality Such discussions ended up promoting developments of other doctrines under the aegis of nomenclatures that defend different ideals, such as: naturalism, determinism, reductionism, positivism, empiricism, fideism, skepticism, sensualism, solipsism, agnosticism, etc. Even if it is accepted that the collapse of the wave function occurs due to the observer’s mind, this does not mean that the observer is an idealist in the Berkeley sense who admits that there are no material objects and that only the mind (and the God) is real In this type of anti-realism, two positions stand out: I) that there is no reality that is independent of mind; II) that the mind, the subject, has an essential role in the constitution of the world. It is in the debate between these two titans and about their philosophical developments in their perspectives, that this article intends to be founded, presenting to the public of Philosophy how the versions of philosophical materialism and idealism extended to realistic and anti-realist features in the field of Quantum Theory
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