Between myth and history: von Neumann on consciousness in quantum mechanics.
Studies in history and philosophy of science August 21, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2025.102083 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
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| Key points | Argues that von Neumann's attitude toward the role of human consciousness in quantum measurement has been long misrepresented; the author contends that von Neumann held a significantly more cautious view than the radical consciousness-causes-collapse reading commonly ascribed to him, and proposes a more balanced historical account based on the phenomenological reconstruction of the London-Bauer approach. |
Abstract
The von Neumann attitude on such a deep interpretational question as the role of a human observer in order for the quantum description of measurement to be consistent has been long misrepresented. The large majority of the subsequent literature ascribed to von Neumann a radical view, according to which not only the collapse was in itself a truly physical process, but also the only way to accommodate it within a quantum description of a typical measurement was the introduction of human consciousness as a kind of 'causal' factor. Inspired by the work of reconstruction pursued by the phenomenological reading of the London-Bauer approach, started by Steven French more than twenty years ago, the account I propose substantiates a significantly more cautious attitude by von Neumann: the time seems then ripe to tell a more balanced story on the relation between the notion of consciousness and the foundations of quantum mechanics in the work of the first scientist - János von Neumann - who explicitly and rigorously addressed the implication of a really universal formulation of quantum physics.