Download or read book Quantum Mechanics Between Ontology and Epistemology written by Florian J. Boge and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the prospects of rivaling ontological and epistemic interpretations of quantum mechanics (QM). It concludes with a suggestion for how to interpret QM from an epistemological point of view and with a Kantian touch. It thus refines, extends, and combines existing approaches in a similar direction. The author first looks at current, hotly debated ontological interpretations. These include hidden variables-approaches, Bohmian mechanics, collapse interpretations, and the many worlds interpretation. He demonstrates why none of these ontological interpretations can claim to be the clear winner amongst its rivals. Next, coverage explores the possibility of interpreting QM in terms of knowledge but without the assumption of hidden variables. It examines QBism as well as Healey’s pragmatist view. The author finds both interpretations or programs appealing, but still wanting in certain respects. As a result, he then goes on to advance a genuine proposal as to how to interpret QM from the perspective of an internal realism in the sense of Putnam and Kant. The book also includes two philosophical interludes. One details the notions of probability and realism. The other highlights the connections between the notions of locality, causality, and reality in the context of violations of Bell-type inequalities.
Download or read book Quantum Physics Meets the Philosophy of Mind written by Antonella Corradini and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-08-19 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quantum physics, in contrast to classical physics, allows non-locality and indeterminism in nature. Moreover, the role of the observer seems indispensable in quantum physics. In fact, quantum physics, unlike classical physics, suggests a metaphysics that is not physicalism (which is today’s official metaphysical doctrine). As is well known, physicalism implies a reductive position in the philosophy of mind, specifically in its two core areas, the philosophy of consciousness and the philosophy of action. Quantum physics, in contrast, is compatible with psychological non-reductionism, and actually seems to support it. The essays in this book explore, from various points of view, the possibilities of basing a non-reductive philosophy of mind on quantum physics. In doing so, they not only engage with the ontological and epistemological aspects of the question but also with the neurophysiological ones.
Download or read book The Meaning of the Wave Function written by Shan Gao and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the heart of quantum mechanics lies the wave function, a powerful but mysterious mathematical object which has been a hot topic of debate from its earliest stages. Covering much of the recent debate and providing a comprehensive and critical review of competing approaches, this ambitious text provides new, decisive proof of the reality of the wave function. Aiming to make sense of the wave function in quantum mechanics and to find the ontological content of the theory, this book explores new ontological interpretations of the wave function in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles. Finally, the book investigates whether the suggested quantum ontology is complete in solving the measurement problem and if it should be revised in the relativistic domain. A timely addition to the literature on the foundations of quantum mechanics, this book is of value to students and researchers with an interest in the philosophy of physics.
Download or read book Epistemological and Experimental Perspectives on Quantum Physics written by Daniel Greenberger and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the very beginning it was realised that quantum physics involves radically new interpretative and epistemological consequences. While hitherto there has been no satisfactory philosophical analysis of these consequences, recent years have witnessed the accomplishment of many experiments to test the foundations of quantum physics, opening up vistas to a completely novel technology: quantum technology. The contributions in the present volume review the interpretative situation, analyze recent fundamental experiments, and discuss the implications of possible future technological applications. Readership: Analytic philosophers (logical empiricists), scientists (especially physicists), historians of logic, mathematics and physics, philosophers of science, and advanced students and researchers in these fields. Can be used for seminars on theoretical and experimental physics and philosophy of science, and as supplementary reading at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.
Download or read book The Epistemology of Quantum Physics written by Taha Sochi and published by Taha Sochi. This book was released on 2022-08-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the epistemology of quantum physics and its interpretation as a scientific theory in its technical form. The contents of the book are essentially of non-formal nature although the formalism of quantum mechanics is also investigated (rather briefly) inline with the needs and requirements of the epistemological investigation and considerations. The reader should note that a general scientific and mathematical background (at the undergraduate level) is required to understand the book properly and appreciate its contents. The book is like my previous books in style and favorable characteristics (such as clarity, graduality and intensive cross referencing with hyperlinks in the electronic versions). However, the book, unlike my previous books, does not contain questions or exercises or solved problems. The book is particularly useful to those who have special interest in the interpretative aspects of quantum theory and the philosophy of science although it should be useful even to those who are interested in the purely-scientific and technical aspects of the quantum theory since the contents of the book should broaden the understanding of these aspects and provide them with qualitative and interpretative dimensions (as well as the added benefit of the brief investigation of the formalism of quantum mechanics).
Download or read book The Ultimate Constituents of the Material World written by Meinard Kuhlmann and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, quantum field theory (QFT)—the mathematical and conceptual framework for contemporary elementary particle physics—is the best starting point for analysing the fundamental building blocks of the material world. QFT if taken seriously in its metaphysical implications yields a picture of the world that is at variance with central classical conceptions. The core of Kuhlmann’s investigation consists in the analysis of various ontological interpretations of QFT, e.g. substance ontologies as well as a process-ontological approach. Eventually, Kuhlmann proposes a dispositional trope ontology, according to which particularized properties and not things are the most basic entities, in terms of which all other entities are to be analysed, e.g as bundles of properties. This book was chosen for the 2009 ontos-Award for research on analytical ontology and metaphysics by the German Society for Analytical Philosophy.
Download or read book Epistemology and Probability written by Arkady Plotnitsky and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-10-20 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an exploration of the relationships between epistemology and probability in the work of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schro- ̈ dinger, and in quantum mechanics and in modern physics as a whole. It also considers the implications of these relationships and of quantum theory itself for our understanding of the nature of human thinking and knowledge in general, or the ‘‘epistemological lesson of quantum mechanics,’’ as Bohr liked 1 to say. These implications are radical and controversial. While they have been seen as scientifically productive and intellectually liberating to some, Bohr and Heisenberg among them, they have been troublesome to many others, such as Schro ̈ dinger and, most prominently, Albert Einstein. Einstein famously refused to believe that God would resort to playing dice or rather to playing with nature in the way quantum mechanics appeared to suggest, which is indeed quite different from playing dice. According to his later (sometime around 1953) remark, a lesser known or commented upon but arguably more important one: ‘‘That the Lord should play [dice], all right; but that He should gamble according to definite rules [i. e. , according to the rules of quantum mechanics, rather than 2 by merely throwing dice], that is beyond me. ’’ Although Einstein’s invocation of God is taken literally sometimes, he was not talking about God but about the way nature works. Bohr’s reply on an earlier occasion to Einstein’s question 1 Cf.
Download or read book Quantum Ontology written by Peter J. Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysicians should pay attention to quantum mechanics-not because it provides definitive answers to many metaphysical questions, but because it reshapes standard metaphysical debates and opens up unforeseen new possibilities. This book guides readers through the theory of quantum mechanics and its metaphysical implications in a clear and accessible way.
Download or read book Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality written by Valia Allori and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection provides new perspectives on some metaphysical questions arising in quantum mechanics. These questions have been long-standing and are of continued interest to researchers and graduate students working in physics, philosophy of physics and metaphysics. It features contributions from a diverse set of researchers, ranging from senior scholars to junior academics, working in varied fields, from physics to philosophy of physics and metaphysics. The contributors reflect on issues about fundamentality (is quantum theory fundamental? If so, what is its fundamental ontology?), ontological dependence (how do ordinary objects exist even if they are not fundamental?), realism (what kind of realism is compatible with quantum theory?), indeterminacy (can the world itself exhibit ontological indeterminacy?). With contributions from both physicists (including Nobel Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft), science communicators and philosophers. .
Download or read book Quantum Worlds written by Olimpia Lombardi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-11 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a comprehensive and up-to-date volume on the conceptual and philosophical problems related to the interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Download or read book The Quantum Principle Its Interpretation and Epistemology written by Jagdish Mehra and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study deals with the development of, and the current discussion about, the interpretation of quantum mechanics. The following topics are discussed: 1. The Copenhagen In terpretation; 2. Formal Problems of Quantum Mechanics; 3. Process of Measurement and the Equation of Motion; 4. Macroscopic Level of Description; 5. Search for Hidden Variables; 6. The Notion of 'Reality' and the Epistemology of Quantum Mechanics; and 7. Quantum Mechanics and the Explanation of Life. The Bohr-Einstein dialogue on the validity of the quan tum mechanical description of physical reality lasted over two decades. Since the early nineteen-fifties, Eugene Wigner has provided much of the point and counterpoint of the continuing discussion on the interpretation and epistemolo gy of quantum mechanics. We have explored Wigner's views in some detail against the background of historical develop ment and current debate. Professor Eugene Wigner has sustained me over many years in my work on the conceptual development of mod ern physics by his kindness and encouragement. This study owes its existence to his direct inspiration, and to his suggestion to me in April 1971 that it would be of interest to write an account of the interpretation of quantum me chanics and the current discussion about it. XII PREFACE This study was completed in September 1972. Signifi cant new developments have occurred since then in the dis cussion of questions related to the epistemology of quan tum mechanics.
Download or read book Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism written by Christopher Norris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a critical introduction to the long-standing debate concerning the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and the problems it has posed for physicists and philosophers from Einstein to the present. Quantum theory has been a major infulence on postmodernism, and presents significant problems for realists. Keeping his own realist position in check, Christopher Norris subjects a wide range of key opponents and supporters of realism to a high and equal level of scrutiny. With a characteristic combination of rigour and intellectual generosity, he draws out the merits and weaknesses from opposing arguments. In a sequence of closely argued chapters, Norris examines the premises of orthodox quantum theory, as developed most influentially by Bohr and Heisenberg, and its impact on varous philosophical developments. These include the ideas developed by W.V Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen, and Hilary Puttnam. In each case, Norris argues, these thinkers have been influenced by the orthodox construal of quantum mechanics as requiring drastic revision of principles which had hitherto defined the very nature of scientific method, causal explanati and rational enquiry. Putting the case for a realist approach which adheres to well-tried scientific principles of causal reasoning and inference to the best explanation, Christopher Norris clarifies these debates to a non-specialist readership and scholars of philosophy, science studies and the philosophy of science alike. Quantum Theory and the Flight From Realism suggests that philosophical reflection can contribute to a better understanding of these crucial, current issues.
Download or read book Ontological Aspects of Quantum Field Theory written by Meinard Kuhlmann and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2002-11-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quantum field theory (QFT) provides the framework for many fundamental theories in modern physics, and over the last few years there has been growing interest in its historical and philosophical foundations. This anthology on the foundations of QFT brings together 15 essays by well-known researchers in physics, the philosophy of physics, and analytic philosophy. Many of these essays were first presented as papers at the conference “Ontological Aspects of Quantum Field Theory”, held at the Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF), Bielefeld, Germany. The essays contain cutting-edge work on ontological aspects of QFT, including: the role of measurement and experimental evidence, corpuscular versus field-theoretic interpretations of QFT, the interpretation of gauge symmetry, and localization. This book is ideally suited to anyone with an interest in the foundations of quantum physics, including physicists, philosophers and historians of physics, as well as general readers interested in philosophy or science. Contents:Approaches to Ontology:Candidate General Ontologies for Situating Quantum Field Theory (P Simons)‘Quanta’, Tropes, or Processes: Ontologies for QFT Beyond the Myth of Substance (J Seibt)Analytical Ontologists in Action: A Comment on Seibt and Simons (M Kuhlmann)How Do Field Theories Refer to Entities in a Field? (S Y Auyang)Field Ontologies for QFT:A Naive View of the Quantum Field (A Wayne)Comments on Paul Teller's Book, “An Interpretive Introduction to Quantum Field Theory” (G Fleming)So What Is the Quantum Field? (P Teller)Relativity, Measurement and Renormalization:On the Nature of Measurement Records in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory (J A Barrett)No Place for Particles in Relativistic Quantum Theories? (H Halvorson & R Clifton)Events and Covariance in the Interpretation of Quantum Field Theory (D Dieks)Measurement and Ontology: What Kind of Evidence Can We Have for Quantum Fields? (B Falkenburg)Renormalization and the Disunity of Science (N Huggett)Gauge Symmetries and the Vacuum:The Interpretation of Gauge Symmetry (M Redhead)Comment on Redhead: The Interpretation of Gauge Symmetry (M Drieschner et al.)Is the Zero-Point Energy Real? (S Saunders)Two Comments on the Vacuum in Algebraic Quantum Field Theory (M Rédei) Readership: Physicists, historians of physics and philosophers. Keywords:Quantum Field Theory;Ontology;Foundations of Physics;Philosophy;Measurement;Gauge Field TheoryReviews:“A strength of the volume is its inclusion of commentaries and exchanges.”Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Download or read book Philosophers Look at Quantum Mechanics written by Alberto Cordero and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume explores the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics. It features papers from venues of the International Ontology Congress (IOC) up to 2016. IOC is a worldwide platform for dialogue and reflection on the interactions between science and philosophy. The collection features philosophers as well as physicists, including David Albert, Harvey Brown, Jeffrey Bub, Otávio Bueno, James Cushing, Steven French, Victor Gomez-Pin, Carl Hoefer, Simon Kochen, Peter Lewis, Tim Maudlin, Peter Mittlestatedt, Roland Omnès, Juha Saatsi, Albert Solé, David Wallace, and Anton Zeilinger. Since the early days of quantum mechanics, philosophers have studied the subject with growing technical skill and fruitfulness. Their efforts have unveiled intellectual bridges between physics and philosophy. These connections have helped fuel the contemporary debate about the scope and limits of realism and understanding in the interpretation of physical theories and scientific theories in general. The philosophical analysis of quantum mechanics is now one of the most sophisticated and productive areas in contemporary philosophy, as the papers in this collection illustrate.
Download or read book Paradigms and Paradoxes written by Robert G. Colodny and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revolution involving the foundations of the physical sciences heralded by relativity and quantum theories has been stimulating philosophers for many years. Both of these comprehensive sets of concepts have involved profound challenges to traditional theories of epistemology, ontology, and language. This volume gathers six experts in physics, logic and philosophy to discuss developments in space exploration and nuclear science and their impact on the philosophy of science.
Download or read book Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics written by Shan Gao and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-24 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness and quantum mechanics are two great mysteries of our time--and recently scholars have postulated a deeper connection between them. Exploring this possible connection can be fruitful: an analysis of the conscious mind and psychophysical connection can be indispensable in understanding quantum mechanics and solving the notorious measurement problem, and there is also likely some kind of intimate connection between quantum mechanics--the most fundamental theory of the physical world--and our efforts to explain, naturalistically, the phenomenon of consciousness. The seventeen newly written chapters in this volume are divided into three sections: Consciousness and the Wave Function Collapse, Consciousness in Quantum Theories, and Quantum Approaches to Consciousness. This is the first volume to provide a comprehensive review and thorough analysis of intriguing conjectures about the connection between consciousness and quantum mechanics. Written by leading experts in physics, philosophy, and cognitive science, Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics will be of value to students and researchers working on the foundations of quantum mechanics and the philosophy of mind.
Download or read book Critique of the Quantum Power of Judgment written by Hernán Pringe and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-10-18 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Critique of the Quantum Power of Judgement analyzes the a priori principles which underlie the empirical knowledge provided by quantum theory. In contrast to other transcendental approaches to quantum physics, none of the transcendental principles established by Kant is modified in order to cope with the new epistemological situation that arises with the asumption of the quantum postulate. Rather, by considering Bohr’s views, it is argued that classical concepts provide the mathematical formalism of quantum theory with physical reference through symbolic analogies in the strict Kantian sense. The main result of the investigation is the determination of the highest principle under which quantum objects are subsumed. This principle states that the conditions of the possibility of the systematic unity of contextual experience are at the same time the conditions of the possibility of quantum objects. Upon this principle rests the possibility of any a priori synthetic knowledge of quantum objects. Therefore, the Critique of the Quantum Power of Judgement yields the prolegomena to any future quantum metaphysics.
