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The Metaphysics of Bohmian Mechanics

Author: Vera Matarese

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-05-08

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 3110793873

The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive guide to the metaphysics of Bohmian mechanics. Bohmian mechanics is a quantum theory that describes the motion of particles following trajectories that are determined by the quantum wave-function. The key question that the theory has to face relates to the ontological interpretation of the quantum wave-function. The main debate has mostly centered around two opposing views, wave-function realism on the one hand, and the nomological view on the other hand. The supporters of the former believe that the wave-function is a physical field living in a high-dimensional space; the supporters of the latter regard the wave-function as just an entity that appears in the laws of nature and lacks physical status. This monograph discusses both views open-mindedly, illuminating their tacit problems and providing new insight into how they can be overcome. Moreover, it discusses the structuralist view, which is often neglected and which can be regarded as a reconciliation of the two main opposing camps.

Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal

Author: J.T. Cushing

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-04-17

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 9401587159

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We are often told that quantum phenomena demand radical revisions of our scientific world view and that no physical theory describing well defined objects, such as particles described by their positions, evolving in a well defined way, let alone deterministically, can account for such phenomena. The great majority of physicists continue to subscribe to this view, despite the fact that just such a deterministic theory, accounting for all of the phe nomena of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, was proposed by David Bohm more than four decades ago and has arguably been around almost since the inception of quantum mechanics itself. Our purpose in asking colleagues to write the essays for this volume has not been to produce a Festschrift in honor of David Bohm (worthy an undertaking as that would have been) or to gather together a collection of papers simply stating uncritically Bohm's views on quantum mechanics. The central theme around which the essays in this volume are arranged is David Bohm's version of quantum mechanics. It has by now become fairly standard practice to refer to his theory as Bohmian mechanics and to the larger conceptual framework within which this is located as the causal quantum theory program. While it is true that one can have reservations about the appropriateness of these specific labels, both do elicit distinc tive images characteristic of the key concepts of these approaches and such terminology does serve effectively to contrast this class of theories with more standard formulations of quantum theory.

Quantum Ontology

Author: Peter J. Lewis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-06-13

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0190618795

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Metaphysicians should pay attention to quantum mechanics. Why? Not because it provides definitive answers to many metaphysical questions-the theory itself is remarkably silent on the nature of the physical world, and the various interpretations of the theory on offer present conflicting ontological pictures. Rather, quantum mechanics is essential to the metaphysician because it reshapes standard metaphysical debates and opens up unforeseen new metaphysical possibilities. Even if quantum mechanics provides few clear answers, there are good reasons to think that any adequate understanding of the quantum world will result in a radical reshaping of our classical world-view in some way or other. Whatever the world is like at the atomic scale, it is almost certainly not the swarm of particles pushed around by forces that is often presupposed. This book guides readers through the theory of quantum mechanics and its implications for metaphysics in a clear and accessible way. The theory and its various interpretations are presented with a minimum of technicality. The consequences of these interpretations for metaphysical debates concerning realism, indeterminacy, causation, determinism, holism, and individuality (among other topics) are explored in detail, stressing the novel form that the debates take given the empirical facts in the quantum domain. While quantum mechanics may not deliver unconditional pronouncements on these issues, the range of possibilities consistent with our knowledge of the empirical world is relatively small-and each possibility is metaphysically revisionary in some way. This book will appeal to researchers, students, and anybody else interested in how science informs our world-view.

Philosophy of Physics

Author: Tim Maudlin

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 069118352X

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A sophisticated and original introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics from one of the world’s leading philosophers of physics In this book, Tim Maudlin, one of the world’s leading philosophers of physics, offers a sophisticated, original introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics. The briefest, clearest, and most refined account of his influential approach to the subject, the book will be invaluable to all students of philosophy and physics. Quantum mechanics holds a unique place in the history of physics. It has produced the most accurate predictions of any scientific theory, but, more astonishing, there has never been any agreement about what the theory implies about physical reality. Maudlin argues that the very term “quantum theory” is a misnomer. A proper physical theory should clearly describe what is there and what it does—yet standard textbooks present quantum mechanics as a predictive recipe in search of a physical theory. In contrast, Maudlin explores three proper theories that recover the quantum predictions: the indeterministic wavefunction collapse theory of Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber; the deterministic particle theory of deBroglie and Bohm; and the conceptually challenging Many Worlds theory of Everett. Each offers a radically different proposal for the nature of physical reality, but Maudlin shows that none of them are what they are generally taken to be.

The Wave Function

Author: Alyssa Ney

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-03-28

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0199790809

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This is a new volume of original essays on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. The essays address questions such as: What fundamental metaphysics is best motivated by quantum mechanics? What is the ontological status of the wave function? Does quantum mechanics support the existence of any other fundamental entities, e.g. particles? What is the nature of the fundamental space (or space-time manifold) of quantum mechanics? What is the relationship between the fundamental ontology of quantum mechanics and ordinary, macroscopic objects like tables, chairs, and persons? This collection includes a comprehensive introduction with a history of quantum mechanics and the debate over its metaphysical interpretation focusing especially on the main realist alternatives.

Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics

Author: Mathew Chandrankunnel

Publisher: Global Vision Pub House

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9788182202580

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Physics And Philosophy Inextricably Intertwine In This Book. Physics Unravels The Splendour Of Nature While Philosophy Discloses Its Profoundness. Physics Unveils The Regularity Of Nature Through The Physical Laws While Philosophy Transcends And Transforms It Into A Fabulous Noematic Vision Of Disclosure. The Author Uses A Fourfold Strategy In This Book. In The Firstfold, The Life And Influences Of Bohm Are Explained So That The Reader Can Trace His Intellectual Shoreline. The Secondfold Examines The Conceptual Development Of The Physical Theory Of Quantum Mechanics, Its Interpretation As Copenhagen Mechanics And The Criticism Of Copenhagen Mechanics. In The Thirdfold, Bohmian Mechanics Or The Quantum Holism Is Examined In Detail. The Fourthfold Delves Deep Into The Bohmian Metaphysics That Is Basically Derived From Physics And Describes Its Salient Features And Its Symbolic Representation. A Philosophical Exami-Nation Is Conducted On This Holistic Mythopoeic Cosmology Of Bohm That Is Extended From His Quantum Vision To The Cosmic Reality.

Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality

Author: Valia Allori

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-07-27

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 3030996425

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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 and philosophers.

Experimental Metaphysics

Author: Robert Sonné Cohen

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

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Bohmian Mechanics

Author: Detlef Dürr

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-04-30

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 354089344X

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Bohmian Mechanics was formulated in 1952 by David Bohm as a complete theory of quantum phenomena based on a particle picture. It was promoted some decades later by John S. Bell, who, intrigued by the manifestly nonlocal structure of the theory, was led to his famous Bell's inequalities. Experimental tests of the inequalities verified that nature is indeed nonlocal. Bohmian mechanics has since then prospered as the straightforward completion of quantum mechanics. This book provides a systematic introduction to Bohmian mechanics and to the mathematical abstractions of quantum mechanics, which range from the self-adjointness of the Schrödinger operator to scattering theory. It explains how the quantum formalism emerges when Boltzmann's ideas about statistical mechanics are applied to Bohmian mechanics. The book is self-contained, mathematically rigorous and an ideal starting point for a fundamental approach to quantum mechanics. It will appeal to students and newcomers to the field, as well as to established scientists seeking a clear exposition of the theory.

Quantum Ontology

Author: Peter J. Lewis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 019046982X

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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.