Menon, Tushar
(2024)
The inferentialist guide to quantum mechanics.
[Preprint]
Abstract
This paper introduces a new approach to understanding quantum mechanics (QM) called ‘pure-inferential quantum mechanics.’ The animating thought behind this approach is that, while theories can be about the world without describing it, we would be just as wrong to assume, as anti-realists such as QBists do, that quantum states never describe the world, as we would be to assume, as realists such as Everettians do, that they always do. I marshal some resources from pragmatist philosophy of language to delineate the circumstances under which QM should be understood as descriptive from those under which it should not be. By constructing a novel inferentialist-pragmatist interpretation of QM, I demonstrate, pace Healey, that the inferentialist about QM has the resources to ground an autonomous, descriptive interpretation of QM in its inferential profile, under the appropriate circumstances. I argue that, if we should be inferentialists about QM (and there are good reasons why we should be), then we should be pure-inferentialists.
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