Quantum Physics and the Philosophical Tradition

Martin Strauss

Peter Gibbins

Why should anyone think that what is so deeply puzzling about the quantum world is really a matter of logic? Why should anyone think that studying the logic of quantum mechanics should be a route to a proper understanding of quantum mechanics? There is a tradition in the philosophy of quantum mechanics, a tradition stronger among philosophical commentators than among physicists, which sees the subject as the business of understanding quantum mechanical language and the way that language relates to the world. It is an idea more strongly held by philosophers – it comes much more naturally to them – because the analytic tradition, in which most Anglo-American philosophers of science are raised, is generally much exercised about words and how they hook on to things. The analytic tradition in the philosophy of quantum mechanics is not unreasonable. Everyone admits that we cannot picture the microphysical world, that a graphic or iconic representation of quantum systems is impossible. Therefore understanding quantum mechanics must be a matter of understanding the logic of the words and the mathematics of quantum mechanics. If this seems implausible, it is because of an ambiguity in our use of the verb ‘to understand’. We understand the physical world, and we understand physics. But physics is not the physical world. It is something of an entirely different sort, a human product, a way of representing the world.

Cord Friebe, Meinard Kuhlmann, Holger Lyre +3 more

Bengy Tsz Tsun Wong

Dualism is a metaphysical, philosophical concept which refers to two irreducible, heterogeneous principles. This idea is known to appear in a lot of places in the universe, however a rigorous mathematical definition and is not yet established in a formal way. In this paper, we develop a novel to represent philosophical dualism in a formal mathematical construction with the context of quantum physics, known as the theory of duality. We will use traditional Chinese philosophical concepts in duality as the foundation as it greatly resembles to the mathematical and physical construction for our purpose. This paper will demonstrate how to convolve metaphysical idea into mathematics and physics.

Alexander A. Pechenkin

On April 17-18, 2023, an international conference dedicated to the problems of history and philosophy of quantum physics was held in Paris, bringing together physicists, philosophers and historians of science from Europe, America and Australia. The conference discussed both the issues put on the agenda by quantum technologies and traditional philosophical issues of quantum mechanics. The conference was associated with the presentation of the book “The Oxford Handbook of Quantum Interpretations” (2022) and most of the speakers were authors of this collective work.

V. Fock