PSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association

Stochastic Locality and the Bell Theorems

Geoffrey Paul Hellman

Published Jan 1, 1982• 2 citations

Abstract

As was remarked two years ago at a symposium of the PSA on locality and hidden variables (Shimony 1981), the Bell theorems together with experiments supporting the quantum correlations (violating the inequalities of the theorems) provide a rather remarkable opportunity for philosophy. Shimony summed this up in the nice phrase, “experimental metaphysics”. For, as he pointed out, arguments based on Bell-type theorems, concluding that certain experiments should exhibit correlations obeying a certain inequality, generally employ premises of a metaphysical character, e.g., that the systems in question are deterministic (in the experimental observables). If, in fact, the experimental predictions are violated, and if one has reason to believe any other premises involved, then one must give up the metaphysical hypothesis.

DOI: 10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1982.2.192446

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