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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?).
The book contains contributions from both physicists (including Nobel Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft), science communicators andphilosophers.
List of contents
Introduction.- Part I: Realism. 1. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Decoherence (Davide Romano).- 2. Quantum Fundamentalism vs. Scientific Realism (Matthias Egg).- 3. On the Principles that Serve as Guides to the Ontology of Quantum Mechanics (Vera Matarese).- 4. The Quantum World as a Resource. A Case for the Cohabitation of Two Paradigms (Laura Felline).- 5. Quantum Ontology: Out of this World? (Travis Norsen).- 6. Why Might an Instrumentalist Endorse Bohmian Mechanics? (Darrell P. Rowbottom).- Part II: Ontology. 7. Beables, Primitive Ontology and Beyond: How Theories Meet the World (Andrea Oldofredi).- 8. All Flash, No Substance? (Towards a Fundamental Ontology for GRW) (Elizabeth Miller).- 9. Does the Primitive Ontology rest on Shaky Ground? (Cristian Mariani).- 10. Towards a Structuralist Elimination of Quantum Properties (Valia Allori).- 11. Quantum Ontology without the Wave Function (Carlo Rovelli).- 12. The Relational Ontology of Contemporary Physics (Francesca Vidotto).- 13. Explicit Construction of Local Hidden Variables for Any Quantum Theory up to Any Desired Accuracy(Gerard t'Hooft).- Part III: The Wave Function. 14. Wave Function Realism and Three Dimensions (Lev Vaidman).- 15. Reality as a Vector in Hilbert Space (Sean Carroll).- 16. Cat alive and cat dead are not Cats! Ontology and Statistics in 'Realist' Versions of Quantum Mechanics(Jean Bricmont).- 17. Ontic Random Variables, Incommensurable Probability Distributions, and the Platonic Interpretation of Quantum Theoryn (Jacob Barandes).- 18. Cosmic Hylomorphism vs Bohmian Dispositionalism. Implications of the "No-successor Problem" (William Simpson and John Pemberton).- 19. The Governing Conception of the Wavefunctionn (Nina Emery).- 20. Representation and the Quantum State (Richard Healey).- Part IV: Indeterminacy. 21. Quantum Mechanics Without Indeterminacy (David Glick).- 22. Derivative Metaphysical Indeterminacy and Quantum Physics (Alessandro Torza).- 23. Explication Quantum Indeterminacy (Peter Lewis).- 24. Defending the Situations-based Approach to Deep Worldly Indeterminacy (George Darby and Martin Pickup).- 25. Metaphysical Indeterminacy in the Multiversen (Claudio Calosi and Jessica Wilson).- 26. Fundamentality and Levels in Everettian Quantum Mechanics (Al Wilson).
About the author
Valia Allori has studied physics and philosophy first in Italy, her home country, and then in the United States. She has worked in the foundations of quantum mechanics, with the aim of understanding how we can use our best physical theory to answer general metaphysical questions about the nature of reality. She has been a 2017-18 National Humanities Center Fellow and she is a Fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundation of Physics. She is currently Professor in the Philosophy Department of Northern Illinois University.
