Reality and the Physicist

Angelo Bassi, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka +1 more

Bernard d’Espagnat

By questioning the validity of some of our basic concepts, such as space, object, and causality, quantum physics contributes quite decisively to the dramatic changes now taking place in our world picture.This book is addressed not only to physicists at an early stage in their careers (the first or second year graduate student) but also to philosophers, as well as to all the senior physicists interested in the interpretation problem. Beginning with a chapter that could be described as ?philosophy for physicists,? it presents an in-depth analysis of present-day quantum mechanical concepts, an analysis of physicists and philosophers alike. Specifically, it first offers an extensive critical analysis of such topics as the Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen reality criterion, nonseparatability, the quantum measurement riddle, decoherence theory, consistent histories approaches and ontologically interpretable theories. All this then naturally leads to philosophical questions concerning, in particular, intersubjective agreement and the limit of realism. And a thorough examination of this whole material finally leads to the view that distinguishing between empirical reality and a veiled man-independent reality yields an acceptable answer to the perplexing question of how to interpret quantum physics. Veiled Reality offers nonspecialists, including students in physics, philosophy and the history of science, an accessible perspective on basic problems in the foundations of physics.

Ophir Mottes

James P. Kowall

In this article it is argued that the source of the observer's consciousness is not something that can be found in the physical reality of the observer's world, but only in the underlying reality that remains when everything in that physical reality disappears. That ultimate, underlying reality is the source of the observer's consciousness, but it can only be described as the void.

Bernard d’Espagnat

This chapter provides a moderately precise shape to the idea that physical reality is independent of physicists, an idea deeply rooted in the minds of scientists and laymen alike. This idea is particularized through the introduction of supplementary assumptions that are inspired by common sense. The versions of realism thus obtained are discussed in the light of quantum physics. They are found to be unacceptable. In order for realism to be something more than an arbitrary metaphysical construction, physicists should have some grip on reality through their experience. In conventional quantum mechanics, the hypothesis implies that at any time in its history a microscopic particle always possesses a complete set of compatible observables endowed with definite values. Macro-objectivism, in spite of physicists' reference to experience, is distinctly a realistic philosophy, since it assumes that physical objects would exist and have specific properties even if no human beings existed.

Rajendra Prasad, Bernard d’Espagnat, Dugald R. Murdoch