Bohr on Bell: A Proposed Reading of Bohr and its Implications for Bell’s Theorem

Abstract

Despite some helpful recent studies, I believe that philosophers of physics have yet to understand fully Bohr's reply to Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen's (EPR's) argument that quantum mechanics is incomplete. The first part of this paper is an attempt to make some progress towards full understanding. The second part of the paper then examines the extent to which Bohr can adopt a similar position in response to the case considered by Bohm--the case of two particles correlated not in position and momentum, but in spin. While the same logical space exists in this case--the logic of Bohm's version of the argument is identical to that of EPR's version--it is less clear that Bohr's reply remains physically well-grounded. (edited)