Vague Objects in Quantum Mechanics?

Darby, George

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7978-5_4

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Many authors (cf. [19], [10], [49], [13], inter alia; for criticisms, see [21]) have reflected on the pervasiveness of a feature known as lack of value definiteness (henceforth, LVD). LVD is indeed largely independent of how we interpret quantum mechanics, although different interpretations will account for it differently.…”

Section: The Indeterminate Present In Spontaneous Collapse Interpretations Of Qmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recall now, that SIP-Openness is meant to provide an explanatory schema. It is not enough, then, that the two clauses are satisfied-we also need a motivation for believing that (ii * s ) happens because (i * s ) does 19 . Our suggestion is that the notion of collapse does indeed play the required explanatory role.…”

Section: (I *mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With spontaneous collapse theories, time exists and passes, the world out there exists and undergoes a stochastic evolution ( [25], p. 7). 19 A reviewer of this journal raises a very interesting worry. It is a feature of GRW that whenever a certain particle undergoes a collapse, its wave function is immediately, once again, spread across space.…”

Section: (I *mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The indeterminate present and the open future

Mariani

Torrengo

2021

Synthese

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Explanations of the genuine openness of the future often appeal to objective indeterminacy. According to the received view, such indeterminacy is indeterminacy of certain future-tensed state of affairs that presently obtain. We shall call this view the weak indeterminate present, to distinguish it from the view we will defend in this paper, which we dub the strong indeterminate present. According to our view, unsettledness of the future is grounded on the present indeterminacy of some present-tensed state of affairs. In order for an indeterminate present-tensed state of affairs to explain the unsettledness of a future-tensed state of affairs, there has to be a connection between the two. We argue that this connection can only be provided if we look at the internal structure of the relevant state of affairs. Finally, we will suggest that the best background theory to explain the connection are the so-called spontaneous collapse models of quantum mechanics.

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Section: The Indeterminate Present In Spontaneous Collapse Interpretations Of Qmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: (I *mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The indeterminate present and the open future

Mariani

Torrengo

2021

Synthese

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“…The reason for thinking this is because, at least on a first inspection, quantum indeterminacy is quite different from the phenomena usually targeted by semantic/epistemic accounts. It does not concern vague predicates, and so it is not susceptible to Sorite's paradox (as shown in details by Darby, 2014). Consider that, in standard cases targeted by semantic account of indeterminacy, the relevant predicates are vague in the sense that they admit of borderline cases , meaning they can be precisified so that the sentences containing them get assigned determinate truth values.…”

Section: Testing Quantum Indeterminacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergent quantum indeterminacy

Mariani

2021

Ratio

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Many features of quantum mechanics (QM) suggest that, at the microscopic level, objects sometimes fail to determinately instantiate their properties. In recent years, many have argued that this phenomenon indicates the existence of an ontological kind of indeterminacy, often called metaphysical indeterminacy, which is supposed to affect the ontology of QM. As insisted by Glick ('Against Quantum Indeterminacy, 2017, Thought), however, once we look at the major realist approaches to QM we learn that the indeterminacy disappears from the description of the world at its most fundamental level. This absence might be taken as a good reason for adopting some form of eliminativism towards quantum mechanical indeterminacy. The aim of this paper is to distinguish three ways of defending eliminativism, and to argue that none of them eventually succeeds. The upshot is that QM does in fact suggest the existence of metaphysical indeterminacy, although only as an emergent phenomenon.

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“…Though note than some, most notablyWallace (2019), disagree that EEL be part of the standard formalism. SeeGilton (2016) for a defence of EEL as part of standard QM.3 See also:Bokulich (2014);Wolff (2015);Darby (2010Darby ( , 2014; Torza (2020); Schroeren (2021); Corti (2021);Fletcher and Taylor (2021). For a critique, seeGlick (2017), while, for an extensive review of the debate, seeCalosi and Mariani (2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

Lack of Value Definiteness in Quantum Gravity

Cinti¹,

Mariani²,

Sanchioni³

2021

Preprint

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In this paper we consider the observables describing fundamental spatiotemporal properties and relations in the context of Quantum Gravity (QG). As we will show, in both Loop Quantum Gravity and in String Theory, these observables are non-commuting ones. By analogy with some recent arguments put forward in the context of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (QM), we shall propose to interpret these physical quantities as ontologically indeterminate-i.e., indeterminate in a non-epistemic, mindindependent way. This result has two important consequences for current debates in philosophy of physics. First, it shows that ontological indeterminacy may extend well beyond the non-relativistic case, thereby also suggesting a conceptual continuity between QM and QG. Second, when applied to QG, the notion of indeterminacy may provide a unified philosophical framework for understanding very distinct approaches that are usually considered incompatible.

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Vague Objects in Quantum Mechanics?

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

The indeterminate present and the open future

The indeterminate present and the open future

Emergent quantum indeterminacy

Lack of Value Definiteness in Quantum Gravity

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