Epistemological problems of measurement in quantum mechanics and the appearance of the classical world of macroscopic objects

Erhard Oeser

pp. 199-209

in: Daniel Greenberger, Anton Zeilinger (eds), Epistemological and experimental perspectives on quantum physics, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

If one considers epistemology not as a unified and coherent theory but rather, as Schrödinger did, as a "point of view" that can be used to define rules for a success­ful methodological procedure in science, the emergence of quantum mechanics creates a totally new situation. For in comparison to the realistic epistemological position of classical physics that is best expressed in Newton's regulae philosophandi, the function of models for experiments and measurement processes has changed completely, so that a new form of epistemology is needed that is specifically tailored towards quantum mechanics, like in the case of quantum logic.