Philosophical Interpretation of Classical Physics - Primacy of Observation in Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity

Primacy of Observation in Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity

Both quantum mechanics and special relativity begin their divergence from classical mechanics by insisting on the primacy of observations and a refusal to admit unobservable entities. Thus special relativity rejects the absolute simultaneity assumed by classical mechanics; and quantum mechanics does not permit one to speak of properties of the system (exact position, say) other than those that can be connected to macro scale observations. Position and momentum are not things waiting for us to discover; rather, they are the results that are obtained by performing certain procedures.

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