Abstract
Black hole complementarity is an influential set of ideas that respond to the black hole information paradox. Unpacking this literature, I argue that black hole complementarity is about the consistency of quantum characterizations of an evaporating black hole and I delineate two consistency claims—i.e., two principles of black hole complementarity: operational complementarity and descriptive complementarity. A series of thought experiments in the physics literature on black hole complementarity gives us strong reasons to adopt the operational principle and reject the descriptive principle. Consequently, if we can stomach operationalism, then operational complementarity may suffice to resolve the black hole information paradox.
