How Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation is realist and solves the measurement problem

TL;DR

This paper argues that Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics is fundamentally realist and effectively resolves the measurement problem, challenging the view that it is merely instrumentalist and incomplete.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Bohr's interpretation unambiguously overcomes the measurement problem and introduces two new postulates to clarify his realist perspective.

Findings

Bohr's interpretation is realist and solves the measurement problem.

Two new postulates clarify Bohr's interpretation.

Bohr's view should be classified alongside other realist solutions.

Abstract

The field of interpretation of quantum mechanics emerged in an attempt to solve the measurement problem. This turned on the perception that Niels Bohr avoided addressing the measurement problem by taking an instrumentalist view of quantum mechanics. I argue that this view is mistaken and Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics is realist. Moreover, Bohr's interpretation, which is different from textbook quantum mechanics (which is due more to Von Neumann and Paul Dirac), succeeds in solving the measurement problem. While the claim that Bohr dissolves the measurement problem within the limits of the epistemological framework he assumes has been made by a few authors, rarely has the case been made that Bohr's project unambiguously and completely overcomes the measurement problem. I make the strong case that Bohr eliminated the measurement problem altogether. For this, I put forward two new postulates through which to make sense of Bohr's interpretation. The article thus seeks to single out Bohr's interpretation from the various views that go together under the umbrella of orthodox quantum mechanics, and which have been traditionally considered susceptible to the measurement problem. It shows that Bohr's interpretation should be classified along with those like hidden variable theories, collapse models, modal interpretations etc., which offer a solution to the measurement problem and are committed to a realist ontology.