The meaning of complementarity

Kalervo V. Laurikainen

Willem M. de Muynck

xi 4.5.24.5.3The double-slit experiment The microscope 4.6 Meaning of the 'complementarity' concept 4.6.1 4.6.24.6.34.6.44.6.5 4.6.6 4.6.7 Two meanings of 'to determine' Heisenberg's disturbance theory of measurement Complementarity according to Bohr Particle-wave duality Parallel and circular complementarity Complementarity and the projection postulate Complementarity and consciousness 4.7 Critique of the complementarity principle Einstein Margenau Ballentine Recent developments Complementarity and empiricist interpretation The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen problem 6 Individual-particle and ensemble interpretations of quantum mechanics 275 6.

Don A. Howard

Michael Friedrich Otte, Luiz Gonzaga Xavier de Barros

Niels Bohr, as is well known, introduced the notion of complementarity into physics, as a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. It holds that objects have complementary properties that cannot be measured accurately at the same time. For example, the particle and wave aspects of physical objects are such complementary phenomena. Both concepts are borrowed from classical mechanics, where it is impossible to be both, a particle and a wave at the same time. Particle and Wave represent the complementarity of the Discrete and the Continuous. Humans reason by means of concepts (meanings) and language, as well as, by means of logical or arithmetic symbolism. Meanings are continua, whereas logic and arithmetic are based on relations of identity and difference.

John T. Holmes

K. B. Madsen

SUMMARYThe article contains the result of an attempt to examine analytically and critically the usefulness in psychology of Niels Bohr's concept of complementarity.In the first section it is shown through quotations (from (1) and (2)) that Bohr actually applies “complementarity” with two meanings in physics: 1. Special complementarity: The relation between two sets of concepts which supplement each other but mutually exclude each other.2. General complementarity: A description that includes the conditions of observation under which a phenomenon has been produced.In the second section it is shown through quotations how Bohr through the use of the concept of complementarity forms four analogies between atomic physics and psychology, namely: 1) the subject-object relation, 2) the determinism-indeterminism relation, 3) the thought-emotion relation, and 4) the instinct-reason relation. The first two relations are examples of general complementarity, the two last ones are examples of special complementarity.In ...