Glick, David and Le Bihan, Baptiste (2023) Metaphysical Indeterminacy in Everettian Quantum Mechanics. [Preprint]
|
Text
IndeterminacyEQM.pdf Download (345kB) | Preview |
Abstract
The question of whether Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM) justifies the existence of metaphysical indeterminacy has recently come to the fore. Metaphysical indeterminacy has been argued to emerge from three sources: coherent superpositions, the indefinite number of branches in the quantum multiverse and the nature of these branches. This paper reviews the evidence and concludes that those arguments don't rely on EQM alone and rest on metaphysical auxiliary assumptions that transcend the physics of EQM. We show how EQM can be ontologically interpreted without positing metaphysical indeterminacy by adopting a deflationary attitude towards branches. Two ways of developing the deflationary view are then proposed: one where branches are eliminated, and another where they are reduced to the universal quantum state.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
|||||||||
| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science | |||||||||
| Keywords: | Everettian quantum mechanics metaphysical indeterminacy branches emergence eliminativism reductionism | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
|||||||||
| Depositing User: | Dr. Baptiste Le Bihan | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 27 Oct 2023 20:02 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 27 Oct 2023 20:02 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 22714 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
|||||||||
| Date: | 2023 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22714 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}