How Can the Opposite to a True Theory Be Also True? A Similar Talmudic Discussion Helps Make This Famous Bohr's Statement Logically Consistent

Authors

Miroslav Svitek, Czech Technical University in PragueFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

5-1-2022

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-22-57

Abstract

In his famous saying, the Nobelist physicist Niels Bohr claimed that the sign of a deep theory is that while this theory is true, its opposite is also true. While this statement makes heuristic sense, it does not seem to make sense from a logical viewpoint, since, in logic, the opposite to true is false. In this paper, we show how a similar Talmudic discussion can help come up with an interpretation in which Bohr's statement becomes logically consistent.