Physics and Commonsense - Reassessing the connection in the light of quantum theory
Abstract
Description
Scientific realism in classical (i.e. pre-quantum) physics has remained compatible with the naive realism of everyday thinking on the whole; whereas it has proven impossible to find any consistent way to visualize the world underlying quantum theory in terms of our pictures in the everyday world. The general conclusion is that in quantum theory naive realism, although necessary at the level of observations, fails at the microscopic level. In this paper I offer a counter view that what fails in quantum theory is naive realism at the level of observations itself.
37 pages (including 4 figures); a few sentence constructions improved
37 pages (including 4 figures); a few sentence constructions improved