ABSTRACT
IN the previous chapter, we saw that the usual interpretation of the quantum theory requires us to give up the concepts of causality, continuity, and the objective reality of individual micro-objects, in connection with the quantum-mechanical domain. Instead it leads to a point of view in which physics is said to be inherently and unavoidably restricted, in this domain and below, to the manipulation of mathematical symbols according to suitable techniques that permit, in general, the calculation only of the probable behaviour of the phenomena that can be observed in the macroscopic domain. These far-reaching changes in the conceptual structure of physics have been based on the assumption that certain features of the current formulation of the quantum theory, viz. the indeterminacy principle and the appearance of a characteristic set of opposing “complementary” pairs of modes of behaviour (e.g. wave-like and particle-like), are absolute and final features of the laws of nature, which will continue to apply, uncontradicted and without approximation, in every domain that will ever be the subject of physical investigation.
