Mythical Thought in Bohr's Anti-Realist Realism (Or: Lessons on How to Capture and Defeat Smoky Dragons)

In this work we argue that the power and effectiveness of the Bohrian approach to quantum mechanics is essentially grounded on an inconsistent form of anti-realist realism which supports not only the uncritical tolerance – in physics – towards the “standard” account of the theory of quanta but also – in philosophy – to the mad reproduction of mythical (inconsistent and vague) narratives – known as “interpretations”. We will discuss the existence of – what John Archibald Wheeler named – “smoky dragons” not only within the standard formulation of the theory but also within the many interpretations that have been – later on – introduced by philosophers and philosophically inclined physicists. After analyzing the role of smoky dragons within both contemporary physics and philosophy of physics we will propose a general procedure grounded on a series of necessary theoretical conditions for producing meaningful physical concepts that – hopefully – could be used as tools and weapons to capture and defeat these beautiful and powerful mythical creatures.