Weinstein, Steven (1995) Undermind. [Preprint]

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Abstract

David Albert and Barry Loewer have proposed a new interpretation of quantum mechanics which they call the Many Minds interpretation, according to which there are infinitely many minds associated with a given (physical) state of a brain. This interpretation is related to the family of many worlds interpretations insofar as it assumes strictly unitary (Schrödinger) time-evolution of quantum-mechanical systems (no "reduction of the wave-packet"). The Many Minds interpretation itself is principally motivated by an argument which purports to show that the assumption of unitary evolution, along with some common sense assumptions about mental states (specifically, beliefs) leads to a certain non-physicalism, in which there is a many-to-one correspondence between minds and brains. In this paper, I critically examine this motivating argument, and show that it depends on a mistaken assumption regarding the correspondence between projection operators and "yes/no" questions.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Weinstein, Steven
Keywords:	"Many Minds" quantum interpretation "Many Worlds"
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Steven Weinstein
Date Deposited:	13 Oct 2002
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:11
Item ID:	835
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	1995
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/835

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