Quantum states for primitive ontologists

Belot, Gordon

doi:10.1007/s13194-011-0024-8

Cited by 83 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The argument for the primitive ontology approach in general and the Bohmian formulation of quantum mechanics in particular is independent of Super-Humeanism and the considerations that speak in favour of parsimony in ontology: the argument is that this approach provides a cogent solution to the quantum measurement problem (see notably Maudlin 2010, Belot 2012. Applying Super-Humeanism to this approach, the claim then is that the primitive ontology of relative particle positions and their change is the complete ontology.…”

Section: Minimalist Ontology and Physical Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These particles move according to a deterministic law -the guiding equation -in which the wave function has the job to yield the particles' velocities at any time t give their positions at t. This law is linked with a probability measure -the quantum equilibrium hypothesis -from which the quantum mechanical probability calculus follows. A proposal for a minimalist ontology 11The argument for the primitive ontology approach in general and the Bohmian formulation of quantum mechanics in particular is independent of Super-Humeanism and the considerations that speak in favour of parsimony in ontology: the argument is that this approach provides a cogent solution to the quantum measurement problem (see notably Maudlin 2010, Belot 2012. Applying Super-Humeanism to this approach, the claim then is that the primitive ontology of relative particle positions and their change is the complete ontology.…”

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A proposal for a minimalist ontology

Esfeld

2017

Synthese

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This paper seeks to answer the following question: What is a minimal set of entities that form an ontology of the natural world, given our well-established physical theories? The proposal is that the following two axioms are sufficient to obtain such a minimalist ontology: (1) There are distance relations that individuate simple objects, namely matter points. (2) The matter points are permanent, with the distances between them changing. I sketch out how one can obtain our wellestablished physical theories on the basis of just these two axioms. The argument for minimalism in ontology then is that it yields all the explanations that one can reasonably demand in science and philosophy, while avoiding the drawbacks that come with a richer ontology.Keywords: minimalist ontology, parsimony, Humeanism, relationalism about space-time, ontic structural realism, classical mechanics, quantum physics, Bohmian mechanics Formulating a minimalist ontologyAny form of a naturalistic metaphysics uses science, notably fundamental physics, as the guide to ontology. However, one cannot read off the ontology from the mathematical structure of a physical theory. The first and foremost purpose of such a structure is to obtain a simple and informative representation of the evolution of a given domain of entities. The mathematical structure uses whatever parameters are appropriate to achieve that aim, but these parameters do not thereby automatically become part of the ontology of the theory. To mention just one prominent example, consider the wave function, which is the central mathematical innovation of quantum physics. It is without doubt a parameter that fulfils the mentioned purpose, but there is an ongoing dispute about what, if any, its ontological significance is. Thus, even if one endorses scientific realism and adopts a naturalistic stance in metaphysics, philosophical argument is called for to develop a proposal for an ontology of a given physical theory, or physics tout court. One way to approach ontology is to draw a distinction between what can be called the primitive ontology of a given physical theory and what is its dynamical structure. The primitive ontology are those entities that, according to the theory, exist simply in the world. The dynamical structure of a physical theory then is made up by all those parameters that are introduced through their function for the evolution of those entities that constitute the primitive ontology. Note that this notion of a primitive ontology is much wider than the sense in which this term is used in the debate about the foundations of quantum mechanics (see Dürr et al. 2013Dürr et al. , p. 29 (first published 1992, and Allori et al. 2008): a primitive ontology in this wide sense does not necessarily have to consist in entities that are localized in threedimensional space or four-dimensional space-time (and what about space or space-time A proposal for a minimalist ontology 2 themselves?). Nonetheless, the paradigmatic example of a primitive ontology is this one: according t...

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Section: Minimalist Ontology and Physical Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

A proposal for a minimalist ontology

Esfeld

2017

Synthese

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“…If a system has N mass parameters, then it will contain N physical entities. Therefore, an N-body system contains N physical entities, and the wave function of the system describes the state of these physical entities 8 . Next, these N entities exist in 3-dimensional space, not in a 3N-dimensional configuration space.…”

Section: Many-body Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This poses a further question, namely whether the reality of the wave function can be argued without resorting to nontrivial assumptions . Moreover, a harder problem is to determine the ontological meaning of the wave function, which is still a hot topic of debate in the alternatives to quantum mechanics such as the de Broglie-Bohm theory (Belot 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reality and meaning of the wave function

Gao¹

2014

Protective Measurement and Quantum Reality

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“…Its opponents, whom I will call reductionists 2 , deny the need for such postulates, because they Email address: matthias.egg@philo.unibe.ch (Matthias Egg) To appear in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, available on http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2016.10.007 2 I introduce this label because all the other labels that have been attached to this camp in the previous debate strike me as somewhat inaccurate. For example, the position is often dubbed "wave function realism", but this obscures the fact that also the primitivist approach is compatible with some varieties of realism about the wave function (or more precisely, about the quantum state represented by the wave function; see Belot 2012;Egg and Esfeld 2015). The term "wave function monism" would be more accurate, but it would exclude Albert's (1996; version of Bohmian mechanics, which is explicitly opposed to primitivism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The physical salience of non-fundamental local beables

Egg

2017

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in

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I defend the idea that objects and events in three-dimensional space (so-called local beables) are part of the derivative ontology of quantum mechanics, rather than its fundamental ontology. The main objection to this idea stems from the question of how it can endow local beables with physical salience, as opposed to mere mathematical definability. I show that the responses to this objection in the previous literature are insufficient, and I provide the necessary arguments to render them successful. This includes demonstrating the legitimacy of dynamical considerations in the derivation of local beables and responding to the threat stemming from the availability of different sets of local beables in the context of the GRW theory.

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Quantum states for primitive ontologists

Cited by 83 publications

References 32 publications

A proposal for a minimalist ontology

A proposal for a minimalist ontology

Reality and meaning of the wave function

The physical salience of non-fundamental local beables

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