THE RHETORIC OF ANTIREALISM AND THE COPENHAGEN SPIRIT

This paper argues against the possibility of presenting a consistent v ersion of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics, characteri zing its founders' philosophical pronouncements including those on the realism-antirealism issue, as a contingent collection of local, often contradictory, moves in changing theoretical and sociopolitical circu mstances. The paper analyzes the fundamental differences of opinion be tween Bohr and the mathematical physicists, Heisenberg and Born, conce rning the foundational doctrine of the ''indispensability of classical concepts'', and their related disagreements on ''quantum reality.'' T he paper concludes with an explanation of how the appearance of consen sus was achieved despite fundamental disagreements among the proponent s. The paper undermines the adequacy of the notion of a general concep tual framework to describe the philosophical endeavors of working scie ntists.