QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

this indivisibility resulting from the quantum of action is that a portrayal of the world in quantum
form cannot any more be presented using a visualisable mechanistic-deterministic model. 625 In
specific experimental situations, atomic objects have to be represented in the form of waves, in
others they have to be represented as being particles. It is not necessary, however, for atomic
objects 626 or the target of a particular investigation to be either a particle or a wave, even though
these are the only familiar images which we can use at the macroscopic level to describe the
phenomena observed in different experimental situations. As the information yielded by
complementary experimental situations and portrayals also includes the influence of the
experimental setup, our observations do not have to concern some independent properties of
microscopic objects, only phenomena which appear as result of their interaction. Complementary
phenomena cannot be directly internally contradictory for the reason that the experimental
systems always require one or the other to be excluded. From the viewpoint of complementarity,
the apparent inconsistencies were completely removed. 627 Complementarity is not therefore
connected to any contradictions in reality, it results from the limitations of the employment of
mechanical models and classical language.
In an interactive situation, the observer is considered as an extension of the equipment being
used in the examination of phenomena. In such a situation, the observer cannot give an objective
external view of how a particular process advances and can only obtain knowledge about the
world by participating in its processes. When describing the experienced process to others, the
observer must, however, separate subject and object from one another, thereby separating
him/herself from the wholeness of reality. Portrayal is thus a consequence of an experiment and
is bound to it. The best-possible portrayal cannot therefore attain the whole of reality without
residuals. The method of portrayal employed by complementarity addresses a certain part of the
whole in different situations and from different perspectives. Even though our descriptions are
coloured by our previous observations and language, they are not imaginary constructions, they
refer to real phenomena.
Bohr presented his thinking on complementarity for the first time in 1927 at a conference in
625 Bohr 1958, 5 and 41.
626 Bohr regularly speaks about atomic objects instead of speaking, for example, of properties related to interactions
or relations between atomic objects and measurement equipment, or of the actualisation of possibilities contained in
wave functions.
627 Bohr 1958, 59.
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