Bohr Meets Rovelli: a Dispositionalist Account of the Quantum Limits of Knowledge
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Relational Quantum Mechanics
Relational Quantum Mechanics Matteo Smerlak† September 17, 2006 †Ecole normale sup´erieure de Lyon, F-69364 Lyon, EU E-mail: [email protected] Abstract In this internship report, we present Carlo Rovelli’s relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, focusing on its historical and conceptual roots. A critical analysis of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument is then put forward, which suggests that the phenomenon of ‘quantum non-locality’ is an artifact of the orthodox interpretation, and not a physical effect. A speculative discussion of the potential import of the relational view for quantum-logic is finally proposed. Figure 0.1: Composition X, W. Kandinski (1939) 1 Acknowledgements Beyond its strictly scientific value, this Master 1 internship has been rich of encounters. Let me express hereupon my gratitude to the great people I have met. First, and foremost, I want to thank Carlo Rovelli1 for his warm welcome in Marseille, and for the unexpected trust he showed me during these six months. Thanks to his rare openness, I have had the opportunity to humbly but truly take part in active research and, what is more, to glimpse the vivid landscape of scientific creativity. One more thing: I have an immense respect for Carlo’s plainness, unaltered in spite of his renown achievements in physics. I am very grateful to Antony Valentini2, who invited me, together with Frank Hellmann, to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Canada. We spent there an incredible week, meeting world-class physicists such as Lee Smolin, Jeffrey Bub or John Baez, and enthusiastic postdocs such as Etera Livine or Simone Speziale. -
An Energy and Determinist Approach of Quantum Mechanics Patrick Vaudon
An energy and determinist approach of quantum mechanics Patrick Vaudon To cite this version: Patrick Vaudon. An energy and determinist approach of quantum mechanics. 2018. hal-01714971v2 HAL Id: hal-01714971 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01714971v2 Preprint submitted on 15 Mar 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. An energy and determinist approach of quantum mechanics Patrick VAUDON Xlim lab – University of Limoges - France 0 Table of contents First part Classical approach of DIRAC equation and its solutions Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4 DIRAC equation ...................................................................................................................................... 9 DIRAC bi-spinors ................................................................................................................................. 16 Spin ½ of the electron .......................................................................................................................... -
The World As Will and Quantum Mechanics
(https://thephilosophicalsalon.com) ! HOME (HTTPS://THEPHILOSOPHICALSALON.COM/) ABOUT (HTTPS://THEPHILOSOPHICALSALON.COM/ABOUT/) CONTACT US (HTTPS://THEPHILOSOPHICALSALON.COM/CONTACT/) DEBATES THE WORLD AS WILL AND JUL QUANTUM 22 2019 MECHANICS BY BENJAMIN WINTERHALTER (HTTPS://THEPHILOSOPHICALSALON.COM/AUTHOR/BENJAMININTERHALTER/) 4" SHARE 0# COMMENT 10♥ LOVE here is, unfortunately, no such thing as fate. If we accept that quantum mechanics— for all the strangeness associated with it—gives an accurate description of the T universe’s basic ontology, we should also accept that the will is real. The evidence for quantum mechanics is extremely strong, and physicists, including Alan Guth, David Kaiser, and Andrew Friedman (https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-are-closing-the-bell-test- loophole-20170207/), have closed some of the few remaining loopholes around the reality of quantum entanglement, a phenomenon wherein the state of a particle cannot be described independently of the state of at least one other. (Albert Einstein called entanglement “spooky action at a distance.”) But the existentially terrifying prospect of free will contains a shimmering surprise: In the conception of free will that’s compatible with quantum mechanics, exercises of the will—intentions or desires that lead to bodily actions—are fundamentally limited, finite, and constrained. In a word, entangled. According to the American philosopher John Searle’s 2004 book Freedom and Neurobiology, the fact of quantum indeterminacy—the ineradicable uncertainty in our knowledge of physical systems, first formulated by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg—does not guarantee that free will exists. Indeterminacy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the belief that there is no such thing as fate. -
Three Chronic Errors: Some Misconceptions Concerning the Direction of Time
1 Three Chronic Errors: Some Misconceptions concerning the Direction of Time In a subject in which differing opinions are rife, it is difficult to discern anything like a consensus on what constitutes the direction of time. Physicists routinely identify it with the direction of increasing entropy, and then part company over whether this is in turn founded on such esoterica as the expansion of the universe (Gold), the no-boundary condition + weak anthropic principle (Hawking), a broken time-symmetry at the microscopic level (Prigogine), or the surfeit of entropy produced by a massive inflation of spacetime in the first –35 10 seconds of the universe’s existence (Guth, Davies).1 Philosophers, on the other hand, have been skeptical of attempts to define time’s direction in terms of entropy considerations, at least since the failure of Reichenbach’s efforts in mid-century.2 Grünbaum has abandoned the idea of a ‘direction’ in favor of an anisotropy between the two possible directions of time3; Earman doubts the relevance of entropy4; and Mehlberg, Horwich and Price see time as intrinsically symmetric.5 There is, nevertheless, an orthodoxy of sorts. For, despite their differences over the origin or relevance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, all these authors (save Prigogine) agree on the following premises as their point of departure: the direction of time is not the direction in which events “come to be”, since temporal becoming is a mere facet of 1 Thomas Gold, “Cosmic Processes and the Nature of Time”, in Mind and Cosmos, ed. Robert G. Colodny (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966), 311-329; Stephen Hawking, “The No- Boundary Condition and the Arrow of Time”, in The Physical Origins of Time Asymmetry ed. -
The Role of Philosophy in a Naturalized World
EuJAP | Vol. 8 | No. 1 | 2012 ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER UDK: 1 Dummett, M. 1:53 530.1:140.8 113/119 THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN A NATURALIZED WORLD JAN FAYE University of Copenhagen ABSTRACT 1. Introduction This paper discusses the late Michael Dummett’s Why are humanists and natural scientists characterization of the estrangement between unable to understand one another? Th is physics and philosophy. It argues against those physicists who hold that modern physics, seems to be one of the two main questions rather than philosophy, can answer traditional that concern Sir Michael in his thought- metaphysical questions such as why there is provoking essay “Th e Place of Philosophy something rather than nothing. The claim is that in the European Culture.” He does not physics cannot solve metaphysical problems since metaphysical issues are in principle himself supply us with any defi nite answer, empirically underdetermined. The paper closes but suggests that philosophers in general with a critical discussion of the assumption of do not know much about the natural some cosmologists that the Universe was created sciences, and therefore do not dare to speak out of nothing: In contrast to this misleading up against the natural scientists (and those assumption, it is proposed that the Universe has a necessary existence and that the present epoch who do are not interested in the same kind after the Big Bang is a contingent realization of of problems as the scientists.) Moreover, the Universe. because of the great success of the natural sciences scientists are often arrogant by Keywords: : Dummett, physics, philosophy, meta- assuming that the only knowledge we physics, underdetermination, cosmology can have is the knowledge they are able to provide. -
An Argument for 4D Blockworld from a Geometric Interpretation of Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics Michael Silberstein1,3, Michael Cifone3 and W.M
An Argument for 4D Blockworld from a Geometric Interpretation of Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics Michael Silberstein1,3, Michael Cifone3 and W.M. Stuckey2 Abstract We use a new distinctly “geometrical” interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM) to argue for the fundamentality of the 4D blockworld ontology. Our interpretation rests on two formal results: Kaiser, Bohr & Ulfbeck and Anandan showed independently that the Heisenberg commutation relations of NRQM follow from the relativity of simultaneity (RoS) per the Poincaré Lie algebra, and Bohr, Ulfbeck & Mottelson showed that the density matrix for a particular NRQM experimental outcome may be obtained from the spacetime symmetry group of the experimental configuration. Together these formal results imply that contrary to accepted wisdom, NRQM, the measurement problem and so-called quantum non-locality do not provide reasons to abandon the 4D blockworld implication of RoS. After discussing the full philosophical implications of these formal results, we motivate and derive the Born rule in the context of our ontology of spacetime relations via Anandan. Finally, we apply our explanatory and descriptive methodology to a particular experimental set-up (the so-called “quantum liar experiment”) and thereby show how the blockworld view is not only consistent with NRQM, not only an implication of our geometrical interpretation of NRQM, but it is necessary in a non-trivial way for explaining quantum interference and “non-locality” from the spacetime perspective. 1 Department of Philosophy, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, [email protected] 2 Department of Physics, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, [email protected] 3 Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, [email protected] 2 1. -
Yet Again, Quantum Indeterminacy Is Not Worldly Indecision
Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Yet Again, Quantum Indeterminacy is not Worldly Indecision Alberto Corti January 18, 2021 Pre-print. Accepted in Synthese. The link to the published version will be added soon. Abstract It has been argued that non-relativistic quantum mechanics is the best hunting ground for genuine examples of metaphysical indeterminacy. Ap- proaches to metaphysical indeterminacy can be divided into two families: meta-level and object-level accounts. It has been shown (Darby, 2010; Skow, 2010) that the most popular version of the meta-level accounts, namely the metaphysical supervaluationism proposed by Barnes and Williams (2011), fails to deal with quantum indeterminacy. Such a fact has been taken by many as a challenge to adapt supervaluationism to quantum cases. In this paper, I will focus on the very last of these attempts, i.e. the situation semantics account proposed by Darby and Pickup (2019). After having shown where quantum indeterminacy arises and having surveyed the assumptions endorsed by the participants of the debate, I turn to Darby and Pickup's proposal. I argue that, despite the machinery introduced, their account still fails to account for quantum indeterminacy. After considering some possible counterarguments, I suggest in the conclusion that one can plausibly extend the argument to those meta-level approaches that treat quantum indeterminacy as worldly indeci- sion. Keywords Metaphysical Indeterminacy · Meta-Level Accounts · Quantum Mechanics · Metaphysics of Science · Situation Semantics Alberto Corti [email protected] Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva. Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Urbino. 2 Alberto Corti 1 Introduction Metaphysical indeterminacy (henceforth `MI') is the idea that indeterminacy is a feature of the world itself, rather than a feature imputable to the words we use (Fine, 1975) or to our knowledge (Williamson, 1994). -
Like Other Physical Theories, Quantum Mechanics Deals with Repeatable
Chapter 16 Free Will 16.1 The Problem The nature and existence of free will are traditional philosophical topics. One can easily see why by noting that the notions of free will and moral responsibility are related. The nature of the connection is a matter of debate; however, one can minimally say that paradigmatic cases of moral responsibility occur only when the agent acted of his own free will. Many have viewed free will as threatened both by theology and science.1 Leaving theology aside, the main threat coming from science has been represented by determinism, which we must now briefly consider. Determinism is the view that if at a time two isolated systems are described by the same state equation, then they have always been and will always be described the same equations and that two systems in the very same state always display the same properties. In effect, determinism is equivalent to the combination of evolutionary and value determinism. Classical mechanics is often taken to embody determinism, but to what 1 The theological problem is this. The traditional orthodox God knows the future. If God knows today that tomorrow at 3:23 pm I shall mow the lawn, then it looks as if mowing the lawn is not really up to me, since if I were to abstain from it I would turn God’s knowledge into mere belief, something that both philosophy and piety seem to prevent. Note, by the way, that the problem, albeit in a slightly different version, remains even if we dispose of God. -
Quantum Relational Indeterminacy
Article Quantum relational indeterminacy CALOSI, Claudio, MARIANI, Cristian Reference CALOSI, Claudio, MARIANI, Cristian. Quantum relational indeterminacy. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. B, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 2020, p. 28 DOI : 10.1016/j.shpsb.2020.06.002 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:140824 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 Quantum Relational Indeterminacy Claudio Calosi & Cristian Mariani [in Studies in Hist. and Phil. of Modern Physics] Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish, a vapour sometime like a bear or lion, a towered citadel, a pendent rock, a forked mountain, or blue promontory with trees upon't that nod unto the world and mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs; They are black vesper's pageants. W. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra IV. 14: 3-10. Abstract The paper presents the first thorough investigation of quantum metaphys- ical indeterminacy (MI) in the context of the Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (RQM). We contend that the interaction between MI and RQM is mutually beneficial. On the one hand, MI provides a metaphysical framework for RQM that has been neglected in the liter- ature, and that promises to undermine some objections that are often raised against RQM. On the other hand, RQM might serve as an example of fundamental quantum MI. Introduction In his recent paper The Sky is Blue and Birds Flies Through it (2018), the leading physicist Carlo Rovelli distinguishes three equally important kinds of development that can move us forward in understanding the quantum world. -
Luis-Alberto CORDERO-LECCA)
Luis-Alberto CORDERO-LECCA) Full Professor of Philosophy and History, City University of New York at the CUNY Graduate Center and Queens College CUNY. Director of Graduate Studies, Philosophy Department, Queens College, CUNY. Numerary Member of the Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences and of the Institute de Hautes Sciences Theoriques, Brussels. Doctor, Honoris Causa, Universdad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos; Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad Peruana Ricardo Palma, Lima; Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad, Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Puno, Peru; Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, Huánuco. Honorary Professor, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru. Former Chairman of the Philosophy Panel of the Research Foundation, CUNY. Former Chairman of the Columbia University Seminar on the History & Philosophy of Science. Former University Director of the Library, Publications and Museums of Cayetano Heredia University (Lima-Peru). Former Chairman of the Department of Physics & Mathematics and Honorary Director of the Program for Scientific Thought, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru. Fields: Philosophy of science and the philosophical history of science; scientific realism, foundations of physics, contemporary naturalism. ALBERTO CORDERO (Luis-Alberto Cordero-Lecca) Curriculum Vitae, January, 2021) FIELDS: Philosophy of science and the philosophical history of science; scientific realism, foundations of physics, contemporary naturalism. NATIONALITY: Peruvian HIGHER EDUCATION -
Quantum Mechanics and Free Will: Counter−Arguments
Quantum mechanics and free will: counter−arguments Martín López−Corredoira Astronomisches Institut der Universitaet Basel, Venusstrasse 7, CH−4102−Binningen, Switzerland E−mail: [email protected] Abstract Since quantum mechanics (QM) was formulated, many voices have claimed this to be the basis of free will in the human beings. Basically, they argue that free will is possible because there is an ontological indeterminism in the natural laws, and that the mind is responsible for the wave function collapse of matter, which leads to a choice among the different possibilities for the body. However, I defend the opposite thesis, that free will cannot be defended in terms of QM. First, because indeterminism does not imply free will, it is merely a necessary condition but not enough to defend it. Second, because all considerations about an autonomous mind sending orders to the body is against our scientific knowledge about human beings; in particular, neither neurological nor evolutionary theory can admit dualism. The quantum theory of measurement can be interpreted without the intervention of human minds, but other fields of science cannot contemplate the mentalist scenario, so it is concluded that QM has nothing to say about the mind or free will, and its scientific explanation is more related to biology than to physics. A fatalistic or materialist view, which denies the possibility of a free will, makes much more sense in scientific terms. 1. Definition of free will First of all, we must clarify the meaning of the term to which we refer: Free will: a source totally detached from matter (detached from nature) which is the origin (cause) of options, thoughts, feelings,.. -
Science and Reality
Science and reality Jan Faye Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen Since the heyday of logical positivism, the dominant view in philosophy of science has been Realism. But over the last two or three decades its prominence seems to decline. No one wants to return to the excesses of logical positivism, but as the dust after the battle settled, it became more and more clear that not everything the defeated part stood for was without merit. And, as we shall see, Realism has its excesses and problems too. Hardcore instrumentalists believed that the scientific theories are mere tools for predictions and calculations and that they contain no content telling us how the world really is, being conceptual tools that are neither true nor false. Theories help us to organize empirical data in virtue of the claim of theoretical entities, but theoretical entities are, and always will be, fictitious mental constructions because their alleged existence would transcend anything that could be established by sense experience. Realism grows out of the practical and observational success of science it- self. Instrumentalism, in contrast, is generated by a philosophical desire to strip metaphysics of any veil of legitimacy and to dress science in armour of epistemic warrant. As long as astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology dealt mainly with macroscopic objects which could be observed, as was the case to the end of 19th century, the acceptance of the instrumentalist view had no far-reaching implica- tions, neither with respect to the number of theoretical entities explained away, nor with respect to possible technological consequences of a belief in these enti- ties.