Philosophy of Science Commons^™

What Kind Of Relationality Does Quantum Mechanics Exhibit?, Emily Adlam

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In this article I elaborate on the approach to relational quantum mechanics suggested by Adlam and Rovelli (2023). I suggest that this approach fills an important gap in the spectrum of relational approaches, because it posits that the relational aspects of quantum mechanics are both inherent and dynamical. I compare this approach to Orthodox RQM, arguing that it has a number of advantages, and I show how some possible objections can be resolved.

Lorentz Invariance And Quantum Coordination: A Neo-Aristotelian Framework For Entanglement And Relativity, Angel Rafael Sosa Muniz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The phenomenon of quantum entanglement has been at the center of heated debates among physicists and philosophers since the dawn of the quantum era. The early discussions initiated by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen—regarding potential violations of the Principle of Relativity by entangled particles, expressed in the so-called “EPR Paradox”—ultimately culminated in the demonstration of Bell’s theorem and its violations. Since then, philosophers of science and physicists have developed multiple proposals attempting to account for the ontological status of quantum formalism and its possible tension with relativistic principles. This thesis contributes to these efforts by advancing a Neo-Aristotelian ontological framework inspired …

From Statistical Dependence To The Space Of Possible Superdeterministic Theories, Mordecai Waegell, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Bell’s theorem demonstrates that any physical theory that is consistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics, and which satisfies some apparently innocuous assumptions, must violate the principle of local causality. It may therefore be possible to maintain local causality by rejecting one of these other assumptions instead. One possibility that has recently received significant attention involves rejecting the principle of statistical independence (SI). In this paper, we consider the frequency interpretation of SI, which states that ρ(λ) ≈ ρ(λ|Z), where ρ(λ) is the relative frequency of an element of an ensemble being in the state λ, and Z is a …

The Metaphysics Of Time Within Physics, Mohamed Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

The starting point of this thesis is to shed some light on the metaphysical nature of time by reflecting on the physics of time. The aim of this approach is not to [dis]prove or defend a metaphysical position but rather to elucidate the metaphysical position that underlies [or is compatible with] our best scientific theories. This task will be demanding, not only because our best theories may carry different interpretations of their underlying temporal structure but also because there seems to be a conceptual conflict/incompatibility between the notion of time in relativity and quantum mechanics, which are the two major …

Mathematics And Determinism: Chaos, Quantum Mechanics, And The Limits Of Predictive Structure, Jackson T. Salumbides

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between mathematics and determinism by analyzing how chaos theory, quantum mechanics, and formal mathematical limits challenge traditional conceptions of predictability and causal structure. Chaos theory shows that deterministic systems can exhibit practical unpredictability due to sensitivity to initial conditions. Quantum mechanics introduces probabilistic outcomes that complicate deterministic interpretation, though alternative frameworks such as Bohmian mechanics and superdeterminism attempt to restore determinism at conceptual cost. Additionally, results from mathematical logic, including Gödel’s incompleteness theorems and Turing’s undecidability, demonstrate intrinsic limitations on what can be deduced or computed, even in fully deterministic systems. By synthesizing these areas, …

Moderate Physical Perspectivalism, Emily Adlam

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Recent developments in the foundations of physics have given rise to a class of views suggesting that physically meaningful descriptions must always be relativized to a physical perspective. In this article, I distinguish between strong physical perspectivalism, which maintains that all facts must be relativized to a perspective, and moderate physical perspectivalism, which maintains that all empirically meaningful descriptions must be relativized to a perspective. I argue that scientific evidence and philosophical considerations support moderate physical perspectivalism over strong physical perspectivalism. In particular, motivations connected to epistemic humility and the social nature of science are more compatible with the moderate …

How Are Entanglement Entropies Related To Entropy Bounds?, Emily Adlam

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper we seek to understand what current knowledge of entanglement entropies suggests about the appropriate way to interpret the covariant entropy bound. We first begin by arguing that just as in the classical case, a universal bound on the von Neumann entropy could have either an epistemic or ontological origin. We then consider several possible ways of explaining the bound as a consequence of features of the entanglement entropy. We discuss consider area laws in condensed matter and quantum field theory, arguing that they suggest an epistemic reading of the bound. We also discuss the ‘spacetime from entanglement’ …

Marie Curie: The Quantum Matriarch, Diptiman Das

Student Publications

Entitled “Marie Curie: The Quantum Matriarch,” this paper illuminates the extraordinary life and enduring legacy of Marie Curie, whose groundbreaking work in radioactivity revolutionized the scientific landscape. Born as Maria Skłodowska in the heart of Warsaw, Curie’s odyssey from Poland’s clandestine Flying University to the hallowed halls of Paris’ Sorbonne epitomizes her tenacious quest for enlightenment amidst the shackles of societal norms. In collaboration with her spouse, Pierre Curie, she discovered the elements polonium and radium, thereby introducing the concept of “radioactivity” to the world and securing Nobel accolades in both Physics and Chemistry. This paper ventures into her intimate …

Quantum Realities: A Comparative Analysis Of Interpretations Addressing The Measurement Problem In Quantum Mechanics, Adib Kabir

Student Publications

This paper examines the measurement problem in quantum mechanics and evaluates three major interpretations: the Copenhagen interpretation, the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI), and the Pilot-Wave theory. The Copenhagen interpretation posits that particles exist in superposition until measured, at which point their wave functions collapse. MWI suggests that all possible outcomes occur in separate, non-interacting branches of the universe, eliminating wave function collapse but introducing an infinite number of unobservable universes. The Pilot-Wave theory reintroduces determinism through hidden variables, guiding particles along definite paths. The paper concludes that the Copenhagen interpretation is the most plausible, balancing empirical adequacy, ontological clarity, and simplicity.

The Temporal Asymmetry Of Influence Is Not Statistical, Emily Adlam

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We argue that the temporal asymmetry of influence is not merely the result of thermodynamics: it is a consequence of the fact that modal structure of the universe must admit only processes which cannot give rise to contradictions. We appeal to the process matrix formalism developed in the field of quantum foundations to characterise processes which are compatible with local free will whilst ruling out contradictions, and argue that this gives rise to ‘consistent chaining’ requirements that explain the temporal asymmetry of influence. We compare this view to the perspectival account of causation advocated by Price and Ramsey.

Have Underground Radiation Measurements Refuted The Orch Or Theory?: Comment On “At The Crossroad Of The Search For Spontaneous Radiation And The Orch Or Consciousness Theory”, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

"In [1] it is claimed that, based on radiation emission measurements described in [2], a certain 'variant' of the Orch OR theory has been refuted. I agree with this claim. However, the significance of this result for Orch OR per se is unclear. After all, the refuted 'variant' was never advocated by anyone, and it contradicts the views of Hameroff and Penrose (hereafter: HP) who invented Orch OR [3].

My aim is to get clear on this situation. I argue that it is indeed reasonable to speak of 'variants' here. Orch OR is not a complete model of reality but …

More On The Demons Of Thermodynamics, Daniel P. Sheehan, Garret Moddel, James W. Lee

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Parallels Of Quantum Mechanics And Mahāyāna Buddhist Philosophy: An Argument For Relational Quantum Mechanics, Axel I. Palapa

CMC Senior Theses

Western orthodoxy philosophy is based on the principle of noncontradiction and thus, the philosophy of science is as well. The most prominent interpretations of quantum mechanics, since its inception, have followed this principle. In this paper, two quantum phenomena, the Observer Problem (measurement problem) and quantum entanglement will be analyzed from a Mahayana Buddhism ontological perspective. I will analyze the mathematical and philosophical arguments proposed by Graham Priest and Jay Garfield, based on dialethism, pertaining to Nagarjuna and the Net of Indra. Demonstrating the parallels and adaptability of the arguments to further the philosophical groundwork for Carlo Reveille’s Relational Quantum …

Patrick Aidan Heelan’S The Observable: Heisenberg’S Philosophy Of Quantum Mechanics, Paul Downes

Research Resources

The publication of Patrick Aidan Heelan’s The Observable, with forewords from Michel Bitbol, editor Babette Babich and the author himself, offers a timely invitation to reconsider the relation between quantum physics and continental philosophy.

Patrick Heelan does so, as a contemporary of and interlocutor with Werner Heisenberg on these issues, as a physicist himself who trained with leading figures of quantum mechanics (QM), Erwin Schrödinger and Eugene Wigner. Moreover, Heelan highlights Heisenberg’s interest in phenomenology as ‘a friend and frequent visitor of Martin Heidegger’ (55). Written originally in 1970 and unpublished then for reasons Babich explicates in her foreword, …

The Crisis Of Communication In The Information Age: Revisiting C.P. Snow's Two Cultures In The Era Of Fake News, Aaron Green

Irish Communication Review

The purpose of this paper is to revisit C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” lecture in light of the cultural dominance of information technology. The crisis of communication in the information age, whether in fake news, political polarisation or science denial, has come about because both scientific and literary cultures, in seeking a world without entropy, have inadvertently stumbled upon a world without meaning. In order to explain how this has happened, the paper first explores Snow's challenge: to describe the second law of thermodynamics. The paper then provides a description of entropy that is neutral with regard to thermodynamics and information, …

Reformulating Bell's Theorem: The Search For A Truly Local Quantum Theory, Mordecai Waegell, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

The apparent nonlocality of quantum theory has been a persistent concern. Einstein et al. (1935) and Bell (1964) emphasized the apparent nonlocality arising from entanglement correlations. While some interpretations embrace this nonlocality, modern variations of the Everett-inspired many worlds interpretation try to circumvent it. In this paper, we review Bell's “no-go” theorem and explain how it rests on three axioms, local causality, no superdeterminism, and one world. Although Bell is often taken to have shown that local causality is ruled out by the experimentally confirmed entanglement correlations, we make clear that it is the conjunction of the …

Phantoms In Science: Nietzsche's Nonobjectivity On Planck's Quanta, Donald Richard Dickerson Iii

Undergraduate Theses

What does Maxwell Planck's concept of phantomness suggest about the epistemological basis of science and how might a Nietzschean critique reveal solution to the weaknesses revealed? With his solution to Kirchoff's equation, Maxwell Planck launched the paradigm of quantum physics. This same solution undermined much of current understandings of science versus pseudoscience. Using Nietzsche's perspectivism and other philosophical critiques, Planck's answer to blackbody radiation is used to highlight the troubles with phantom problems in science and how to try to direct science towards a more holistic and complete scientific approach.

In Defence Of The Self-Location Uncertainty Account Of Probability In The Many-Worlds Interpretation, Kelvin J. Mcqueen, Lev Vaidman

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

We defend the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (MWI) against the objection that it cannot explain why measurement outcomes are predicted by the Born probability rule. We understand quantum probabilities in terms of an observer's self-location probabilities. We formulate a probability postulate for the MWI: the probability of self-location in a world with a given set of outcomes is the absolute square of that world's amplitude. We provide a proof of this postulate, which assumes the quantum formalism and two principles concerning symmetry and locality. We also show how a structurally similar proof of the Born rule is available for …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Ideology In Physics: Ontological Naturalism And Theism Confront Big Bang, Cosmic Fine Tuning, And The Multiverse Of M-Theory, Anthony Walsh, Marc Ruffinengo

Journal of Ideology

The most profound questions that philosophers and scientists have asked across the centuries have been metaphysical and existential, such as “What is the meaning and purpose of life, why are we here, and why is there something rather than nothing?” There can be no definitive answers to these questions, so those who pose and propose answers to them necessarily engage ideology. Some physicists have become philosophers in that they are attempting to answer these profound questions with highly speculative theories as, for instance, Hawking and Mlodonow’s book The Grand Design (2010) which they tout as providing new answers to age-old …

The Participating Mind In The Quantum Universe, Menas Kafatos, Keun-Hang Susan Yang

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics, which followed the Copenhagen Interpretation but was enhanced by primarily Werner Heisenberg and John von Neumann into a fully developed theory, brought in, among others, the role of measurement, available choices and response of the quantum system. It is, more consistent and clear than other interpretations of quantum mechanics as it provides account of the interactions of observers with the external world. As such, the Orthodox interpretation does a lot more than just account for physical interactions in the atomic world, which was the original goal of quantum mechanics in the early part of …

Fundamental Awareness: A Framework For Integrating Science, Philosophy And Metaphysics, Neil D. Theise, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The ontologic framework of Fundamental Awareness proposed here assumes that non-dual Awareness is foundational to the universe, not arising from the interactions or structures of higher level phenomena. The framework allows comparison and integration of views from the three investigative domains concerned with understanding the nature of consciousness: science, philosophy, and metaphysics. In this framework, Awareness is the underlying reality, not reducible to anything else. Awareness and existence are the same. As such, the universe is non-material, self-organizing throughout, a holarchy of complementary, process driven, recursive interactions. The universe is both its own first observer and subject. Considering the world …

Tests For Intrinsicness Tested, Kelvin J. Mcqueen, René Van Woudenberg

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Various tests have been proposed as helps to identify intrinsic properties. This paper compares three prominent tests (we call them Perfect Duplication, Real Change, and Lonely) and shows that they fail to pass adequate verdicts on a set of three properties. The paper examines whether improved versions of the tests can reduce or remove these negative outcomes. We reach the sceptical conclusion that whereas some of the tests must be discarded as inadequate because they don’t yield definite results, the remaining tests depend for their application on the details of fundamental particle physics so much so that they cannot be …

The Physicist - Philosophers: The Legacy Of James Clerk Maxwell And Herrmann Von Helmholtz, Peter Skiff

Faculty Books & Manuscripts

One of the most effective, and most mysterious, tools of modern theoretical physics is a mathematical method including what is here called “field theory.” The success of this procedure in unraveling the “zoology” of fundamental particles and their behavior is a marvel. The philosophical context of this marvel is the source of endless academic controversy. The core of the method is a blend of mathematics and description created by “physicist-philosophers,” from Maxwell and Helmholtz to Einstein and Schrödinger. This book tries to unravel the mystery, or at least chronicle it.

Models Of Time Travel And Their Consequences, Antonio M. Mantica

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

How do we travel through time? We know that we can move forward in it (we have no choice), but can we jump forward in time? Can we go backward in time? It also gives rise to other troubling questions: is time measurable in distinct increments, or does it flow continuously? In "Models of Time Travel and their Consequences," Antonio Mantica walks the reader through current understandings of how time functions in Einstein's universe and proposes three distinct models to explain it. Following that, he provides a list of experiments to credit or discredit the models. Appropriate for audiences of …

Are There Really Two Different Bell’S Theorems?, Travis Norsen

Physics: Faculty Publications

This is a polemical response to Howard Wiseman’s recent paper, “The two Bell’s theorems of John Bell”. Wiseman argues that, in 1964, Bell established a conflict between the quantum mechanical predictions and the joint assumptions of determinism and (what is now usually known as) “parameter independence”. Only later, in 1976, did Bell, according to Wiseman, first establish a conflict between the quantum mechanical predictions and locality alone (in the specific form that Bell would sometimes call “local causality”). Thus, according to Wiseman, the long-standing disagreements about what, exactly, Bell’s theorem does and does not prove can be understood largely as …

Four Tails Problems For Dynamical Collapse Theories, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

The primary quantum mechanical equation of motion entails that measurements typically do not have determinate outcomes, but result in superpositions of all possible outcomes. Dynamical collapse theories (e.g. GRW) supplement this equation with a stochastic Gaussian collapse function, intended to collapse the superposition of outcomes into one outcome. But the Gaussian collapses are imperfect in a way that leaves the superpositions intact. This is the tails problem. There are several ways of making this problem more precise. But many authors dismiss the problem without considering the more severe formulations. Here I distinguish four distinct tails problems. The first (bare tails …

Mass Additivity And A Priori Entailment, Kelvin J. Mcqueen

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

The principle of mass additivity states that the mass of a composite object is the sum of the masses of its elementary components. Mass additivity is true in Newtonian mechanics but false in special relativity. Physicists have explained why mass additivity is true in Newtonian mechanics by reducing it to Newton’s microphysical laws. This reductive explanation does not fit well with deducibility theories of reductive explanation such as the modern Nagelian theory of reduction, and the a priori entailment theory of reduction that is prominent in the philosophy of mind. Nonetheless, I argue that a reconstruction of the explanation that …

Identical Particles In Quantum Mechanics : Operational And Topological Considerations, Klil H. Neori

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation reports our investigation into the existence of anyons, which interpolate between bosons and fermions, in light of the Symmetrization Postulate, which states that only the two extremes exist. The Symmetrization Postulate can be understood as asserting that there are only two consistent ways of combining the behavior of distinguishable particles to obtain the behavior of identical ones. We showed that anyonic behavior then arises because of the way in which the probability amplitudes of distinguishable particles in two dimensions are affected by the topology of the space. These can then be combined in one of the ways arising …

All At One Point: The New Physics Of Italo Calvino And Jorge Luis Borges, Mark Thomas Rinaldi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work of comparative literary criticism focuses on the presence of mathematical and scientific concepts and imagery in the works of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges, beginning with an historical overview of scientific philosophy and an introduction to the most significant scientific concepts of the last several centuries, before shifting to deep, scientifically-driven analyses of numerous individual fictions, and finally concluding with a meditation on the unexpectedly fictive aspects of science and mathematics. The close readings of these authors' fictions are contextualized with thorough explanations of the potential literary implications of theories from physics, mathematics, neuroscience and chaos theory. …