Determinism Beyond Time Evolution

Adlam, Emily

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2110.07656

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In order to formalise this modal structure, we will employ the framework developed in [6,8], which characterises laws of nature in modal terms as constraints. This approach is inspired by the increasing prominence of constraint-based laws in physics, as surveyed in [6,8]; a very similar account of lawhood in terms of constraints was also recently given by [19]. To characterise constraints we again make use of the notion of a Humean mosaic.…”

Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are in fact ways to avoid probabilistic laws in the constraint framework -we could choose to postulate 'frequency constraints,' which roughly speaking translate any law of the form 'events of type A have outcome A with probability 0.8' to a constraint of the form 'the set of mosaics in which (very close to) eighty percent of events of type E have the outcome A,' so that the fact that the relative frequencies match those predicted by the laws is itself lawlike. (See refs [6,70], for further discussion of this approach). However, this involves a fairly dramatic revision of our usual ideas about probability, so for the purposes of the current project we will leave open the possibility that the laws are genuinely probabilistic, and thus that the matching between QMOT and the actual mosaic is only probabilistic and approximate.…”

Section: Possible Objectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Henceforth we will define the 'objective modal structure' of reality in terms of laws of nature, in accordance with the view that laws of nature can be regarded as a form of objective modal structure, which is advocated in refs [13,29,48] amongst others. In order to formalise this modal structure, we will employ the framework developed in [6,8], which characterises laws of nature in modal terms as constraints. This approach is inspired by the increasing prominence of constraint-based laws in physics, as surveyed in [6,8]; a very similar account of lawhood in terms of constraints was also recently given by [19].…”

Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Operational Theories as Structural Realism

Adlam¹

2022

Preprint

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We undertake a reconstruction of the epistemic significance of research on operational theories in quantum foundations. We suggest that the space of operational theories is analogous to the space of possible worlds employed in the possible world semantics for modal logic, so research of this sort can be understood as probing modal structure. Thus we argue that operational axiomatisations of quantum mechanics may be interpreted as a novel form of structural realism; we discuss the consequences of this interpretation for the philosophy of structural realism and the future of operational theories.

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Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Possible Objectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Operational Theories as Structural Realism

Adlam¹

2022

Preprint

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“…8 See also (Chen 2021, p.120). Adlam (2021) has independently proposed a similar account of strong determinism, which she calls strong holistic determinism. Both accounts are inspired by (Penrose 1989).…”

Section: Strong Determinism αmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strong Determinism

Chen¹

2022

Preprint

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A strongly deterministic theory of physics is one that permits exactly one possible history of the universe. In the words of Penrose (1989), "it is not just a matter of the future being determined by the past; the entire history of the universe is fixed, according to some precise mathematical scheme, for all time." Such an extraordinary feature may appear unattainable in any realistic and simple theory of physics. In this paper, I propose a definition of strong determinism and contrast it with those of standard determinism and super-determinism. Next, I discuss its consequences for explanation, causation, prediction, fundamental properties, free will, and modality. Finally, I present the first example of a realistic, simple, and strongly deterministic physical theory-the Everettian Wentaculus. As a consequence of physical laws, the history of the Everettian multiverse could not have been different. If the Everettian Wentaculus is empirically equivalent to other quantum theories, we can never empirically find out whether or not our world is strongly deterministic. Even if strong determinism fails to be true, it is closer to the actual world than we have presumed, with implications for some of the central topics in philosophy and foundations of physics.

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Determinism Beyond Time Evolution

Cited by 2 publications

References 43 publications

Operational Theories as Structural Realism

Operational Theories as Structural Realism

Strong Determinism

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