A Philosopher's Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Possibilities and Impossibilities of a Modal Interpretation - Softcover

Vermaas, Pieter E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521675677 ISBN 13: 9780521675673

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Synopsis

Modal interpretations provide a general framework within which quantum mechanics can be considered as a theory that describes reality in terms of physical systems possessing definite properties. Modal interpretations are relatively new attempts to present quantum mechanics as a theory which, like other physical theories, describes an observer-independent reality. In this book, Pieter Vermaas details the results of this work. He provides both an accessible survey and a systematic reference work about how to understand quantum mechanics using a modal interpretation. The book will be of great value to undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in philosophy of science and physics departments with an interest in learning about modal interpretations of quantum mechanics.

About this title

Book Description

Standard quantum mechanics is not a theory that describes the outside world. Rather, it only predicts the probabilities with which measurements have outcomes. However, quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory of nature, and attempts have been made, therefore, to interpret the theory as a description of the world. This book is a survey of the so-called modal interpretations of quantum mechanics, proposed during the 1970s and 1980s, and more fully developed in the 1990s.

Review

"In my view this work will turn out to be a milestone in the project, now already 30 years old, of modal interpretations." Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521675677
• ISBN 13: 9780521675673
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 308