Dorato, Mauro and Laudisa, Federico (2014) Realism and instrumentalism about the wave function. How should we choose? [Preprint]

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Abstract

The main claim of the paper is that one can be ‘realist’ (in some sense) about quantum mechanics without requiring any form of realism about the wave function. We begin by discussing various forms of realism about the wave function, namely Albert’s configuration-space realism, Dürr Zanghi and Goldstein’s nomological realism about Ψ, Esfeld’s dispositional reading of Ψ, Pusey Barrett and Rudolph’s realism about the quantum state. By discussing the articulation of these four positions, and their interrelation, we conclude that instrumentalism about Ψ is by itself not sufficient to choose one over the other interpretations of quantum mechanics, thereby confirming in a different way the indetermination of the metaphysical interpretations of quantum mechanics.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dorato, Mauro mauro.dorato@gmail.com Laudisa, Federico federico.laudisa@unimib.it
Keywords:	wave function, configuration space, nomological realism, quantum state realism, dispositionalism, undeterdetermination
Subjects:	General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Depositing User:	Dr Mauro Dorato
Date Deposited:	20 Jan 2014 14:43
Last Modified:	20 Jan 2014 14:43
Item ID:	10235
Subjects:	General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism
Date:	20 January 2014
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10235

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