Cuffaro, Michael E. (2023) The Measurement Problem Is a Feature, Not a Bug - Schematising the Observer as a Postulate and the Quantum-Mechanical Concept of an Open System on an Informational, or (neo-)Bohrian, Approach. [Preprint]
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Abstract
I flesh out the sense in which the informational approach to interpreting quantum mechanics, as defended by Pitowsky and Bub and lately by a number of other authors, is (neo-)Bohrian. I argue that on this approach, quantum mechanics represents what Bohr called a "natural generalisation of the ordinary causal description" in the sense that the idea (which philosophers of science like Stein have argued for on the grounds of practical necessity), that understanding a theory as a theory of physics requires that we be able to "schematise the observer" within it, is elevated in quantum mechanics to the level of a postulate. I argue that the approach's central concern is with the methodological question of how to assign physical properties to what one takes to be a system in a given experimental context, rather than the metaphysical question of what a given state vector represents independently of any context, and I show how the quantum generalisation of the concept of an open system may be used to assuage Einstein's complaint that the orthodox approach to quantum mechanics runs afoul of the supposedly fundamental methodological requirement to the effect that one must always be able, according to Einstein, to treat spatially separated systems as isolated from one another.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Measurement problem Bohrian neo-Bohrian Interpretation of quantum mechanics | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory/Observation |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Michael Cuffaro | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 31 Aug 2023 16:04 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 31 Aug 2023 16:04 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 22476 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Operationalism/Instrumentalism Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism General Issues > Theory/Observation |
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| Date: | 2023 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22476 |
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- The Measurement Problem Is a Feature, Not a Bug - Schematising the Observer as a Postulate and the Quantum-Mechanical Concept of an Open System on an Informational, or (neo-)Bohrian, Approach. (deposited 31 Aug 2023 16:04) [Currently Displayed]
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