Bonn 2020 – scientific programme

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 9: Quantum Theory III

AGPhil 9.1: Talk

Thursday, April 2, 2020, 16:30–17:00, H-HS III

Changing worlds through quantum mechanics — •Tina Wachter — Universität Siegen, Germany — Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany

Based on Kripke’s(1972/80) approach I present a distinction between ’possible worlds’ and ’counterfactual situations’ which must be distinguished for proper examinations of quantum mechanical interpretations and questions concerning the Identity of Indiscernibles. Whereby the first are important for thinking about ’ways the world might have been’ (Lewis) by considering a whole world, somehow similar to our actual world but far enough to be as different as we wish it to be; the latter, counterfactual situations, (Kripke) are the relevant ones giving proper evidence for ’what happens to objects if certain circumstances have changed’. For possible worlds are much broader and not directly dependent on our actual world, counterfactual situations, understood as ’miniworlds’ or ’ministates’ as focussed cuttings of our actual world, are directly related to our understanding of actual world objects or properties. Therefore, descriptions must be sharpened with respect to this distinction, because only counterfactual situations provide proper evidence and (epistemologically) relevant results for our actual world, for they truly speak about the ’things we have’ in our world. Even possible worlds considered as equivalent examples cannot provide the same relevant results for our world as counterfactuals do, neither with respect to QM nor the Identity of Indiscernibles.