Is the world a heap of quantum fragments?

Iaquinto, Samuele; Calosi, Claudio

doi:10.1007/s11098-020-01520-0

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…3). 59 It has recently been suggested that Jonathan Simon's fragmentalist approach to interpreting the quantum state vector (Simon, 2018) is actually "Everettian Quantum Mechanics in disguise" or at any rate "dangerously close" to it (Iaquinto & Calosi, 2021, p. 2017. This is incorrect.…”

Section: Interpreting St and Gtmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Open Systems View

Cuffaro¹,

Hartmann²

2021

Preprint

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There is a deeply entrenched view in philosophy and physics, the closed systems view, according to which isolated systems are conceived of as fundamental. On this view, when a system is under the influence of its environment this is described in terms of a coupling between it and a separate system which taken together are isolated. We argue against this view, and in favor of the alternative open systems view, for which systems interacting with their environment are conceived of as fundamental, and the environment's influence is represented via the dynamical equations that govern the system's evolution. Taking quantum theories of closed and open systems as our case study, and considering three alternative notions of fundamentality: (i) ontic fundamentality, (ii) epistemic fundamentality, and (iii) explanatory fundamentality, we argue that the open systems view is fundamental, and that this has important implications for the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of science, and for metaphysics.

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Section: Interpreting St and Gtmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Open Systems View

Cuffaro¹,

Hartmann²

2021

Preprint

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“…There has been an earlier attempt at a fragmentalist interpretation of quantum mechanics: Simon[34] has proposed that a superposition of quantum states corresponds to a collection of fragments of the physical world. This proposal faces serious difficulties, however[25].…”

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confidence: 99%

Perspectival Quantum Realism

Dieks

2022

Found Phys

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The theories of pre-quantum physics are standardly seen as representing physical systems and their properties. Quantum mechanics in its standard form is a more problematic case: here, interpretational problems have led to doubts about the tenability of realist views. Thus, QBists and Quantum Pragmatists maintain that quantum mechanics should not be thought of as representing physical systems, but rather as an agent-centered tool for updating beliefs about such systems. It is part and parcel of such views that different agents may have different beliefs and may assign different quantum states. What results is a collection of agent-centered perspectives rather than a unique representation of the physical world. In this paper we argue that the problems identified by QBism and Quantum Pragmatism do not necessitate abandoning the ideal of representing the physical world. We can avail ourselves of the same puzzle-solving strategies as employed by QBists and pragmatists by adopting a perspectival quantum realism. According to this perspectivalism (close to the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics) objects may possess different, but equally objective properties with respect to different physically defined perspectives. We discuss two options for such a perspectivalism, a local and a nonlocal one, and apply them to Wigner’s friend and EPR scenarios. Finally, we connect quantum perspectivalism to the recently proposed philosophical position of fragmentalism.

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