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Scientific Experiments Promote Objective Realism——Philosophical Studies on "Schrdinger's Cat Paradox"

Hongfang Li

Published Jan 1, 2006• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Schrdinger's cat paradox is superficial look like a philosophical problem in quantum mechanics,actually involves some debates of the basic philosophical problems in the studies of philosophy of science,such as subjectivism vs.objectivism,realism vs.anti-realism.In the recent years,the progress in the studies of Schrdinger's cat paradox have made the cat entanglement state and its decoherence effect become no longer debatable instead observable behavior of physical world,which prompts the studies of basic philosophical problems involved quantum theory among different philosophical school.

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Schrdinger's cat paradox is superficial look like a philosophical problem in quantum mechanics,actually involves some debates of the basic philosophical problems in the studies of philosophy of science,such as subjectivism vs.objectivism,realism vs.anti-realism.In the recent years,the progress in the studies of Schrdinger's cat paradox have made the cat entanglement state and its decoherence effect become no longer debatable instead observable behavior of physical world,which prompts the studies of basic philosophical problems involved quantum theory among different philosophical school.
This work aims to analyze the philosophical consequences of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, discussing, among other issues, the physical explanation of the experiment and its meaning, the consequences and implications in Quantum Mechanics, namely, the privileged status of the observer, the notion of superposition, the question of self-state and wave collapse, in short, Erwin Schrödinger's criticisms of the orthodox interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. We will deal with the philosophical consequences of Schrödinger's cat mental experiment, seeking to contribute to the understanding of the aspects that differentiate Classical Physics from Quantum Mechanics, in addition to contributing to philosophical discussion in the discussion of realistic and anti-realistic positions that are found in the midst of the debate established between precursors of Quantum Mechanics. It is hoped that this article will enable an expansion of knowledge of the philosophy involved in this entire debate and that it will generate reflections on the ultimate nature of reality.
Why is so shop-soiled a topic as scientific realism once again prominent in the philosophy of science? Realism fought a great battle when Copernican and Ptolemaic world views were at issue long ago. Towards the end of the nineteenth century worries about atomism strongly contributed to anti-realism among philosophers of science. Is there a comparable scientific issue today? Maybe. One way to understand quantum mechanics is to take an idealist line. Some people argue that human observation plays an integral role in the very nature of a physical system, so that the system changes simply when it is measured. Talk of ‘the measurement problem in quantum mechanics’, the ‘ignorance interpretation’, and ‘the collapse of the wave packet’ make it no accident that contributions to the philosophy of quantum mechanics play an important part in the writings of the more original figures in the realist debate. A number of the ideas of Hilary Putnam, Bas van Fraassen or Nancy Cartwright seem to result from taking quantum mechanics as the model of all science. Conversely, numerous physicists wax philosophical. Bernard d'Espagnat has made one of the most important recent contributions to a new realism. He is partly motivated by the dissolution, in some parts of modern physics, of old realist concepts such as matter and entity. He is especially driven by some recent results, that bear the general name of Bell's inequality, and which have been thought to call in question concepts as various as logic, the temporal order of causation, and action at a distance.
The framework of a simple opposition realism – anti-realism is not enough to analyze the views on the reality of unobservable objects of quantum theory. First, it is necessary to distinguish between realism in relation to the theory and realism in relation to the theory’s objects. Secondly, realism in relation to classical objects can be combined, both with realism and with anti-realism in relation to quantum objects. Third, the concept of “existence” and “to exist objectively” can have different meanings. To take into account these factors, the article describes three approaches: classical realism, quantum anti-realism, and quantum realism. I show that the debate around quantum reality has intensified in recent decades due to a series of new quantum experiments. The current stage of the debate is caused by the second quantum revolution relating to the transfer and processing of quantum information. Classical realism and old versions of quantum anti-realism have become insufficiently effective to explain the results of a series of experiments. Proponents of quantum realism, in turn, refer to the possibility of using the wave function to manipulate quantum objects before their measurement. In conclusion, I assume that not only theoretical discussions but also experiments and new technologies can have a major impact on the seemingly purely philosophical debate about reality.
Erwin Schrodinger first described the thought-experiment which has since become known as 'the paradox of Schrodinger's cat' 51 years ago. In recent years, popular accounts of quantum mechanics have tended to adopt one or other of the philosophically most extreme solutions to this paradox, i.e. the consciousness hypothesis or the many worlds interpretation. The author attempts to redress the balance by describing what he takes to be the orthodox solution to the paradox which explains the paradox, without recourse to such counterintuitive notions as a cat simultaneously dead and alive or a universe continually splitting into multiple worlds, as being due to a misapplication of the quantum formalism.
While philosophy of science is the study of problems of knowledge concerning science in general, there also exists - or should exist - a '' philosophy in science'' directed at finding out in what ways our actual scientific knowledge may validly contribute to the basic philosophical quest. Contrary to philosophy of science, which is a subject for philosophers, philosophy in science calls on the services of physicists. When, in its spirit, quantum theory and Bell's theorem are used as touchstones, the two main traditional philosophical approaches, realism and idealism, are found wanting. A more suitable conception seems to be an intermediate one, in which the mere postulated existence of a holistic and hardly knowable Mind-Independent Reality is found to have an explaining power. Some corrections to comments by Schins of a previous work on the same subject are incorporated.