Abstract
This chapterprovides background to the topics covered in the volume and gives a rough mapping of the papers included. Section 1.1 is on Bell’s Theorem and the debate on realism. Section 1.2 considers non-realist responses to the puzzles of quantum mechanics (QM). Section 1.3 outlines the character of realist projects today. Section 1.4 looks at ongoing ontological explorations of the quantum state. Section 1.5 concentrates on fine-grain realist approaches to the nature of the quantum state. Section 1.6 is on individuals and individualization. Section 1.7 discusses a current revival of interest in Niels Bohr’s insights on QM. Section 1.8 outlines some contemporary calls to reconceptualize QM. Section 1.9 ends the chapter with some personal suggestions regarding the scope and limits of realist interpretation.
Dedicated to Hilary Putnam.
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Notes
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Schrödinger imagined a set-up in which a boxed cat is gassed to death if a particle decays, left alone if the particle does not decay. But the particle is neither decaying nor not-decaying, instead it is in a peculiar quantum state: a “superposition” of both decaying and not decaying. According to the Schrödinger equation, the cat evolves into a superposition of being both dead and alive.
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A more radical variety challenges the existence of any external reality—an option without takers among the contributors to this volume.
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Cordero, A. (2019). Introduction: Philosophers Look at Quantum Mechanics. In: Cordero, A. (eds) Philosophers Look at Quantum Mechanics. Synthese Library, vol 406. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15659-6_1
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