popper-logic-scientific-discovery

some observations on quantum theory 247
of Bohr, Kramers, and Slater) it could not but seem as if in the mechanism
of each single atom, probabilities were taking the place of strict
laws. The determinist edifice was wrecked—mainly because probability
statements were expressed as formally singular statements. On
the ruins of determinism, indeterminism rose, supported by Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle. But it sprang, as we now see, from
that same misunderstanding of the meaning of formally-singular
probability statements.
The lesson of all this is that we should try to find strict laws—
prohibitions—that can founder upon experience. Yet we should
abstain from issuing prohibitions that draw limits to the possibilities of
research.* 6
* 6 I have restated my views on these matters more recently (after 33 years) in my paper
‘Quantum Mechanics Without “The Observer”’, in Quantum Theory and Reality, edited by
Mario Bunge, 1967, pp. 7–44.