Interpreting Quantum Theory: A Therapeutic Approach PDF
Preview Interpreting Quantum Theory: A Therapeutic Approach
NewDirectionsinthePhilosophyofScience SeriesEditor:StevenFrench,ProfessorofPhilosophyofScience, UniversityofLeeds,UK Thephilosophyofscienceisgoingthroughexcitingtimes.Newandproductiverela- tionshipsarebeingsoughtwiththehistoryofscience. Illuminating andinnovative comparisonsarebeingdevelopedbetweenthephilosophyofscienceandthephiloso- phyofart.Theroleofmathematicsinscienceisbeingopeneduptorenewedscrutiny inthelightoforiginalcasestudies. Thephilosophiesofparticularsciencesareboth drawingonandfeedingintonewworkinmetaphysics,andtherelationshipsbetween science,metaphysics,andthephilosophyofscienceingeneralarebeingre-examined andreconfigured. TheintentionbehindthisnewseriesfromPalgraveMacmillanistoofferanew,dedi- catedpublishingforumforthekindofexcitingnewworkinthephilosophyofscience thatembracesnoveldirectionsandfreshperspectives. Tothisend,ouraimistopublishbooksthataddressissuesinthephilosophyofscience in the light of these new developments, including those that attempt to initiate a dialoguebetweenvariousperspectives, offerconstructiveandinsightfulcritiques, or bringnewareasofscienceunderphilosophicalscrutiny. Titlesinclude: THEAPPLICABILITYOFMATHEMATICSINSCIENCE IndispensabilityandOntology SorinBangu THEPHILOSOPHYOFEPIDEMIOLOGY AlexBroadbent PHILOSOPHYOFSTEMCELLBIOLOGY KnowledgeinFleshandBlood MelindaFagan INTERPRETINGQUANTUMTHEORY ATherapeuticApproach SimonFriederich SCIENTIFICENQUIRYANDNATURALKINDS FromPlanetstoMallards P.D.Magnus COMBININGSCIENCEANDMETAPHYSICS ContemporaryPhysics,ConceptualRevisionandCommonSense MatteoMorganti COUNTERFACTUALSANDSCIENTIFICREALISM MichaelJ.Shaffer ARESPECIESREAL? AnEssayontheMetaphysicsofSpecies MatthewSlater MODELSASMAKE-BELIEVE Imagination,FictionandScientificRepresentation AdamToon Forthcomingtitlesinclude: SCIENTIFICMODELSANDREPRESENTATION GabrieleContessa NewDirectionsofthePhilosophyofScience SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–20210–8(hardcover) (outsideNorthAmericaonly) Youcanreceivefuturetitlesinthisseriesastheyarepublishedbyplacingastanding order.Pleasecontactyourbookselleror,incaseofdifficulty,writetousattheaddress belowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesandtheISBNquotedabove. CustomerServicesDepartment,MacmillanDistributionLtd,Houndmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS,England Interpreting Quantum Theory A Therapeutic Approach Simon Friederich ©SimonFriederich2015 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2015by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN:978–1–137–44714–2 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. To Sibylla, Alma, and Lydia Contents SeriesEditor’sForeword x Preface xii Part I IntroductionandBackground 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Quantumfoundations 3 1.2 Theideaofatherapeuticapproach 6 1.3 Outlineofthiswork 8 2 SketchoftheFormalism 13 2.1 TheHilbertspaceformalism 13 2.2 Measurementandcollapse 18 2.3 Many-componentsystemsandentanglement 21 3 InterpretationsasSolutionstotheMeasurementProblem 26 3.1 Expositionoftheproblem 26 3.1.1 Maudlin’sformulation 26 3.1.2 Afallacioussolution 29 3.2 Additionalparameters 31 3.2.1 Pilotwavetheory 31 3.2.2 Alternatives:modalinterpretations 37 3.3 Schro¨dingertime-evolutionnotuniversal? 38 3.3.1 FromWignertoPenrose 39 3.3.2 TheGRWmodel 40 3.4 Nodeterminateoutcomes 41 3.4.1 Definingbranches 42 3.4.2 Howdoprobabilitiesfitintothepicture? 44 Part II TheRule Perspective 4 MotivatingaTherapeuticApproach 49 4.1 Absenceofthefoundationalproblems inpractice 49 4.2 Philosophyastherapy 50 4.3 Quantumstatesasnon-descriptive 53 4.3.1 Dissolvingthemeasurementproblem 54 vii viii Contents 4.3.2 Collapseasupdate 55 4.3.3 Typesofepistemicaccounts 56 4.4 Space-timestructureandcollapse 58 5 InSearchofaViableEpistemicAccount 61 5.1 Knowledgeofprobabilitiesversusprobabilitiesas degreesofbelief 61 5.2 QuantumBayesianism 62 5.2.1 Probabilitiesassubjective 62 5.2.2 Valuesofobservablesassubjective? 64 5.3 Objectivityofobservablesmeasuredinanepistemic accountofstates 68 5.4 Constitutiverules 71 6 QuantumProbabilities:WhatAreThey? 75 6.1 Probabilitiesofwhat? 75 6.2 Probabilitiesofwhatkind? 79 6.2.1 Relativefrequencies? 80 6.2.2 Propensities? 82 6.2.3 Objectiveprobabilitiesasconstraintson rationalcredences 84 6.3 Objectionstothisinterpretationofprobabilities 85 6.3.1 Themeans/endsobjection 85 6.3.2 ThequantumBayesianMoore’sparadox 87 Part III Objections 7 CopenhagenReloaded? 95 7.1 Bohrand‘classicallanguage’ 96 7.2 Heisenbergandtheepistemicconceptionof quantumstates 99 7.2.1 Heisenbergonpureversusmixedstates 99 7.2.2 Heisenbergonquantumprobabilitiesas ‘objectivetendencies’ 102 8 TheChargeofAnthropocentrism 105 8.1 Bell’scriticism 105 8.2 Anthropocentricnotionsandvaluedeterminateness 108 9 ReductionandExplanation 113 9.1 Themicro/macrodivide 113 9.2 Explanationwithoutonticquantumstates 115 Contents ix Part IV Non-locality,Quantum Field Theory,andReality 10 Non-localityReconsidered 125 10.1 Quantumtheoryandspecialrelativity–again 125 10.2 Formulatinglocalcausality 127 10.2.1 Causationandcounterfactuals 129 10.2.2 Localcausalityprobabilistically 132 10.3 ThePrincipalPrincipleandadmissibleevidence 136 10.4 Intuitiveprobabilisticlocalcausalityinthelanguage ofthePrincipalPrinciple 139 10.5 Quantumtheory,localcausality,andthePrincipal Principle 141 10.6 Buthowdoesnatureperformthetrick? 143 11 ALookatQuantumFieldTheory 146 11.1 Lagrangianversusalgebraicquantum fieldtheory 146 11.2 Basicsofthealgebraicapproach 147 11.3 ‘Pristine’interpretations 148 11.4 TheRulePerspectiveandunpristineinterpretations 150 11.5 Thecaseforanunpristineinterpretation 152 12 QuantumTheoryand‘Reality’ 157 12.1 Instrumentalism? 158 12.2 Sharpvaluesforallobservables? 161 12.3 Conclusion 166 Appendices AppendixA SketchofBell’sTheorem 168 AppendixB TheKochen–SpeckerTheoreminaNutshell 172 AppendixC ThePusey–Barrett–Rudolph(PBR)Theorem–AShort Introduction 175 Notes 178 Bibliography 187 Index 197
The list of books you might like
