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Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks

Motivating a Therapeutic Approach

Simon Friederich

Published Jan 1, 2015• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

As explained in the previous section, the currently most-discussed interpretations of quantum theory can be classified according to how they (try to) solve the measurement problem. Accounts which are based on what I call the ‘therapeutic’ type of approach to philosophical problems propose a radically different strategy to overcome the measurement problem. The present chapter presents the essential ideas behind therapeutic approaches, briefly sketches their background in the history of philosophy, and explains how one might try to put them to work in the foundations of quantum theory. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

DOI
10.1057/9781137447159_4

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As explained in the previous section, the currently most-discussed interpretations of quantum theory can be classified according to how they (try to) solve the measurement problem. Accounts which are based on what I call the ‘therapeutic’ type of approach to philosophical problems propose a radically different strategy to overcome the measurement problem. The present chapter presents the essential ideas behind therapeutic approaches, briefly sketches their background in the history of philosophy, and explains how one might try to put them to work in the foundations of quantum theory. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Interpretations of quantum theory can be usefully categorised according to which moves they make to avoid the measurement problem. The chapter gives a more systematic exposition of that problem, followed by an overview of the answers that are given by the most popular interpretations. As we shall see, it is helpful to group the interpretations together according to which of the assumptions that lead to the measurement problem they reject. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
As announced in the introductory chapter, one of the core motivations for the therapeutic approach developed here is to investigate whether the doctrine of the Copenhagen interpretation, that quantum theory is fine as it stands and needs neither completion nor revision nor reinterpretation in speculative terms, can be vindicated. Having outlined the essential ingredients of the Rule Perspective in the previous chapters as an account designed to fulfil these therapeutic ambitions, it is natural to ask whether the Rule Perspective may be nothing else than the Copenhagen interpretation in new clothing. Since the Copenhagen interpretation is nowadays widely regarded as a failure, the question amounts to a criticism of the Rule Perspective and, so, deserves to be answered in the part of this work that addresses objections. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
The therapeutic approach to quantum theory developed here is meant to be applicable not only to non-relativistic quantum mechanics, but to more advanced quantum theories as well. More specifically, it is meant to be applicable to the quantum theories of systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom, quantum field theories in particular. However, the quantum theories of systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom harbour additional philosophical challenges besides those that are already present in non-relativistic quantum mechanics, and it is to be hoped that the approach suggested here may help to clarify and address those challenges as well. The present chapter turns to some aspects of the interpretation of quantum field theory and assesses them in the light of the Rule Perspective. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This chapter reviews the quantum theoretical formalism and sketches its foundational problems. The main function of this chapter is to establish common ground for the interpretive discussions which follow, not to provide a comprehensive introduction to quantum theory. 6 Its first section recapitulates the essential aspects of the Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics, the second section covers the textbook account of measurement and measurement collapse, and the third and final section outlines the quantum theoretical treatment of many-component systems and explains the concept of quantum entanglement. Further introductory material is provided in the Appendices A, B, and C, all of which cover important no-go theorems for the interpretation of the theory. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Debates about the foundations of quantum theory usually circle around two main challenges: the so-called 'measurement problem' and a claimed tension between quantum theory and relativity theory that arises from the phenomena labelled 'quantum non-locality'. This work explores the possibility of a 'therapeutic approach' to these problems that regards them as arising from mistaken conceptual presuppositions and quantum theory as a fully respectable theory that is fine as it stands. Pursuing this project, the book develops and defends the idea that quantum states do not represent features of physical reality, it distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate uses of anthropocentric notions in foundational accounts, it considers the nature of explanation in quantum theory, and it addresses complications that arise in quantum field theory. In addition, it argues that quantum theory is 'locally causal' inasmuch as quantum probabilities, properly construed, are independent of what occurs at space-like distance.