Abstract One of the more radical ideas to have emerged in recent metaphysics of quantum theory is wave function realism, according to which the fundamental spatial framework of the world is one of very many dimensions. At first sight this idea sounds similar to the notion of a multidimensional implicate order the physicist David Bohm proposed on the basis of quantum theory in the 1980s. This paper briefly considers Bohm’s various attempts to provide a realist interpretation of the wave function in order to clarify whether or not Bohm was anticipating and even endorsing wave function realism with his implicate order theory. The underlying question is what quantum theory — and non-locality in particular — is trying to tell us about the more fundamental nature of the physical world.
Richard Healey has recently defended an interactive and holistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. The present work focuses on the holistic aspects of this interpretation. Healey claims that symmetric causes are responsible for the experimental violations of the Bell inequalities and that relational holism is a metaphysical implication of these violations. Presented in this way, the holistic features of Healey's interpretation appear to provide metaphysical backing to the physical mechanism of symmetric causes. It is argued that relational holism is not a metaphysical implication at all but is actually a physical component of Healey's interpretation. Seen in this light, Healey's interpretation no longer appears to provide further insight into the violations of the Bell inequalities.