Born’s probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics is commonly assumed to rely on classical probability theory in the sense of Kolmogorov. In this paper we argue that this assumption is methodologically unjustified. We show that quantum probabilities naturally arise from an analytic method fundamentally different from the synthetic approach underlying classical probability theory. In the analytic framework, the whole (the totality of alternatives) is primary, while probabilities of individual alternatives are derived quantities. Interference appears at the level of the realization probability of the whole, whereas conditional probabilities of alternatives remain additive within a given context. We demonstrate that many well-known quantum paradoxes originate from the inappropriate application of synthetic probabilistic reasoning. The proposed formulation is consistent with the Born rule, its extensions developed in our earlier works, and with Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic. Classical probability theory appears only as a degenerate formal limit and is not methodologically universal.
Born’s probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics is commonly assumed to rely on classical probability theory in the sense of Kolmogorov. In this paper we argue that this assumption is methodologically unjustified. We show that quantum probabilities naturally arise from an analytic method fundamentally different from the synthetic approach underlying classical probability theory. In the analytic framework, the whole (the totality of alternatives) is primary, while probabilities of individual alternatives are derived quantities. Interference appears at the level of the realization probability of the whole, whereas conditional probabilities of alternatives remain additive within a given context. We demonstrate that many well-known quantum paradoxes originate from the inappropriate application of synthetic probabilistic reasoning. The proposed formulation is consistent with the Born rule, its extensions developed in our earlier works, and with Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic. Classical probability theory appears only as a degenerate formal limit and is not methodologically universal.
In this paper we propose a unified conceptual framework in which quantum probability, quantum logic, and classical probability theory are understood as different structural levels of a single theoretical hierarchy. Starting from a statistical interpretation of quantum interference, previously developed by the authors, we argue that quantum probability is not an alternative to classical Kolmogorov probability, but a more general structure. Classical probability theory emerges as a limiting case corresponding to the disappearance of interference and the effective decomposition of the whole into independent elements. Within this framework, the Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic appears as a natural logical expression of quantum probability rather than as an abstract algebraic construction detached from physical meaning. The priority of the whole over its parts plays a central role in both quantum probability and quantum logic, while classical logic and probability arise when this priority becomes trivial. We emphasize that the proposed interpretation does not reject existing quantum formalism, but reinterprets its logical and probabilistic foundations. This approach may have implications for the conceptual understanding of quantum algorithms and quantum information processing.
In this paper we provide a structural derivation of Birkhoff–von Neumann quantum logic starting from an extended statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. Quantum logic is not introduced as an independent logical hypothesis, but is shown to arise naturally from the non-classical structure of quantum probability, in particular from interference, non-additivity, and the priority of the whole over its alternatives. We demonstrate that the failure of Boolean logic in quantum mechanics is not a semantic or philosophical anomaly, but a direct consequence of the probabilistic structure encoded in Hilbert space. Within this framework, quantum logic appears as the logical form of quantum probability itself. This interpretation clarifies the physical meaning of quantum logic and highlights its contemporary relevance in quantum information and quantum computation.
In our previous works [1], it was demonstrated that quantum probability calculus requires an analytic approach where the whole (the totality of alternatives) is primary, while the probabilities of individual alternatives are derived quantities. In this paper, we take an essential methodological step forward by clarifying and updating the very concept of an alternative. We argue that within the analytic framework, alternatives cannot be treated as isolated, atomized elements, as is done in the synthetic Kolmogorovian model. Instead, they function as elements of a mathematical equivalence class and never lose their global contextual feature. This refinement allows us to reconcile the local realization of historical events with the global preservation of quantum interference. Consequently, this opening offers a completely new perspective for quantum cosmology without relying on the hypothesis of an external observer.
Abstract Logical inference leads to one of the major interpretations of probability theory called logical interpretation, in which the probability is seen as a measure of the plausibility of a logical statement under incomplete information. Assuming that our usual inference procedure is working rationally for every set of logical propositions represented in terms of commuting projectors on a given Hilbert space, we extend the logical interpretation to quantum mechanics and derive the Born rule. Our result implies that, from epistemological viewpoints, we can regard quantum mechanics as a natural extension of classical probability theory.
Interpretational paradoxes of quantum mechanics may be associated with the application of the structure of classical probability theory to systems whose probabilistic organization is fundamentally contextual. In this work, we propose an outline of an alternative probability theory in which the primary object is not an elementary outcome but a contextual whole—a class of alternatives defined by a common structural property. In this approach, probability is organized on two levels. The first level describes the probabilities of contextual wholes, while the second level describes the conditional probabilities of alternatives within those wholes. Individual alternatives do not possess autonomous probabilities outside their context. Their probabilities arise only as contextual projections of a more fundamental probabilistic structure. Within this model, quantum mechanics appears as a special case of a more general theory in which contextual wholes are described by superpositions of probability amplitudes. Classical probability theory emerges as a limiting case in which all contexts are mutually compatible and can be combined into a single global description. The proposed framework provides a possible conceptual foundation for understanding quantum probability, contextuality, interference, and hybrid probability distributions within a unified structure.
This doctoral thesis in mathematics consists of three articles that explore the probabilistic structure of quantum mechanics and quantization from a novel perspective. The thesis adopts a probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics, which views the archetypical quantum experiments of Bell- and double-slit- type as violating the principle of non-contextuality, i.e., the assertion that all events and observables are always representable on one single Kolmogorovian probability space, rather than the principles of realism or locality. This probabilistic interpretation posits that quantum mechanics constitutes a probability theory that adheres to the principle of contextuality, and that quantum events explicitly occur at the level of measurement, rather than the level of that which is measured, as these are traditionally interpreted. The thesis establishes a natural connection between the probabilistic structure of quantum mechanics, specifically Born’s rule, and the frequentist interpretation of probability. The major conceptual step in establishing this connection is to re-identify quantum observables instead as unitary representations of groups, whose irreducible sub-representations correspond to the observable’s different possible outcomes, rather than primarily as self- adjoint operators. Furthermore, the thesis reformulates classical statistical mechanics in the formalism of quantum mechanics, known as the Koopman-von Neumann formulation, to demonstrate that classical statistical mechanics also adheres to the principle of contextuality. This finding is significant because it raises questions about the existence of a hidden-variable model of classical statistical mechanics of the kind as examined in Bell’s theorem, where this presumed hidden-variable model traditionally has been seen as that which distinguishes "classical" from "quantum" probability.A novel reformulation of quantization is proposed considering it rather in terms of the representation theory of Hamiltonian flows and their associated inherent symmetry group of symplectomorphisms. Contrary to the traditional view of quantization, this formulation can be regarded as compatible with the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics and offers a new perspective on the quantization of gravity.