Dorato, Mauro (2011) Do Dispositions and Propensities have a role in the Ontology of Quantum Mechanics? Some Critical Remarks. [Preprint]

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Abstract

In order to tackle the question posed by the title – notoriously answered in the positive, among others, by Heisenberg, Margenau, Popper and Redhead – I first discuss some attempts at distinguishing dispositional from non-dispositional properties, and then relate the distinction to the formalism of quantum mechanics. Since any answer to the question titling the paper must be interpretation-dependent, I review some of the main interpretations of quantum mechanics in order to argue that the ontology of theories regarding “wave collapse” as a genuine physical process could be interpreted as being irreducibly dispositional. In non-collapse interpretations, on the contrary, the appeal to dispositions is simply a way to reformulate the predictive content of the algorithm of the theory in a fancier metaphysical language.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dorato, Mauro dorato@uniroma3.it
Keywords:	dispositional properties, categorical properties, quantum mechanics, wave collapse, propensity
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Dr Mauro Dorato
Date Deposited:	13 Feb 2011 02:25
Last Modified:	13 Feb 2011 02:25
Item ID:	8482
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	January 2011
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8482

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