SMuK 2023 – scientific programme

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 9: Quantum Foundations 5

AGPhil 9.3: Talk

Thursday, March 23, 2023, 15:00–15:30, JAN/0027

Perspectival Objectivity in Relational Quantum Mechanics — Noemi Bolzonetti and •Luca Gasparinetti — University of Italian Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland

What if everything in the world we are living in could be defined only relative to something else? What if different observers might give different accounts of the same sequence of events? According to the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics (RQM) proposed by Carlo Rovelli (e.g., 1996), there is no "absolute", i.e., observer-independent, description of reality. On the contrary, as well as the notion of simultaneity in special relativity, values and states of quantum systems are always defined via a given perspective. Does this mean that RQM cannot be in any way objective? Very roughly speaking, objectivity can be established only when different observers ascribe their descriptions to their different perspectives. But what can be said to further articulate this rough sketch?

Based on recent development on this topic (Emily Adlam and Carlo Rovelli 2022), the aim of this talk is twofold: we (i) take into account Evans's notion of "intersubjective objectivity" (Peter W. Evans 2020) to better understand in which sense it is possible to recover objectivity in relational quantum mechanics and (ii) explore how perspectival objectivity can provide a philosophical foundation for RQM. Along with Evans, we conclude that we should "stop worrying and love observer-dependent reality" also in the context of relational quantum mechanics.