Berlin 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 5: Quantum-Classical Divide III

AGPhil 5.3: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 20. März 2014, 18:00–18:30, SPA SR22

Physical Reality, Explanation and the Nomological Interpretation of the Wave Function — •Federico Laudisa — Department of Human Sciences, University of Milan-Bicocca, Piazza Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milan, Italy

One of the most controversial issues in the area of the foundations of quantum mechanics is the status of the wave function. According to a recent result, denying the wave function a certain degree of reality leads to contradictions with quantum predictions (Pusey, Barrett, Rudolph 2012); the PBR result, however, gives no hint as to what a wave function is supposed to mean as 'part of reality'. In the present talk, I will turn to the nomological interpretation of the wave function according to the Bohmian mechanics (Goldstein, Zanghì 2013). In order to investigate its status and to see whether it can make justice to the role of the wave function in quantum mechanics, I will rely on two points: 1) the reading of the 'nomological' according to the primitivist approach to laws (Maudlin 2007); 2) the defense of the claim according to which a nomological entity can be part of the natural world even if it is not a concrete and causally efficacious entity (Psillos 2011). Finally, on the basis of the above reading of the nomological role of the wave function, we will see whether this claim can also bring to bear on its explanatory virtue (Lange 2013).