A Philosopher's Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Possibilities and Impossibilities of a Modal Interpretation

ISBN-13: 9780521651080 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 308 str.

Pieter E. Vermaas

Opis

Modal interpretations provide a general framework within which quantum mechanics can be considered as a theory that describes reality in terms of physical systems possessing definite properties. Modal interpretations are relatively new attempts to present quantum mechanics as a theory which, like other physical theories, describes an observer-independent reality. In this book, Pieter Vermaas details the results of this work. He provides both an accessible survey and a systematic reference work about how to understand quantum mechanics using a modal interpretation. The book will be of great value to undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in philosophy of science and physics departments with an interest in learning about modal interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Recenzje

'… the strengths of this book are its clear, detailed exposition of the quantum formalism, and the way in which issues of interpretation are related back to this formalism … the book is very mathematical.' Rachel Wallace Garden, Zentralblatt für Mathematik

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. Quantum mechanics; 3. Modal interpretations; Part I. Formalism: 4. The different versions; 5. The full property ascription; 6. Joint property ascriptions; 7. Discontinuities, instabilities and other bad behaviour; 8. Transition probabilities; 9. Dynamical autonomy and locality; Part II. Physics: 10. The measurement problem; 11. The Born rule; Part III. Philosophy: 12. Properties, states, measurement outcomes and effective states; 13. Holism versus reductionism; 14. Possibilities and impossibilities; 15. Conclusions.