The calculations and predictions of quantum mechanics have been successful, but there is a debate whether quantum mechanics is understood. Understanding quantum mechanics from a hermeneutical perspective will reveal new features of quantum mechanics. This requires first of all a review of key concepts as they are rendered in German, English, and Chinese. Interpretation [Chinese “quán shì”] in hermeneutics consists of Erklärung [explanation – Chinese “shuō míng”] and Auslegung [explication – Chinese “chǎn shì”]. The development of quantum mechanics reflects the iterative process of explication-explanation-explication-explanation. Quantum matter revealed by quantum mechanics is characterized by hermeneutics, fusion of horizons, and history of effects. This can be shown in respect to the delayed-choice experiment. Here, the “past horizon” of the photon becomes an unfinished history, a reversible quantum being, which can only be transformed into a classical existence through quantum measurement. A contemporary photon's “past” reality and “present” reality will be overlaid and fused to form the photon's “whole” reality. This is the photonic reality, and it involves a superimposed horizon that forms the whole of the total effect. This hermeneutic interpretation sheds light not only on the interpretation of quantum mechanics but also on the question why there are several such interpretations with a tendency for more to come. In short, the intertwining of explication and explanation, and the projection of meaning reveal that quantum mechanics is hermeneutic.

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