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Philosophy of Nature and Quantum Reality

Ian J. Thompson
Department of Physics
University of Surrey

 

• Preface
• Contents
• 1. Prospects for a Philosophy of Nature
  • Accommodating Quantum Physics
  • The Philosophy of Nature
• 2. Dispositions
  • 2.1 Everyday Dispositions
    • Propensities: Probabilistic Dispositions
    • Questions of Meaning
  • 2.2 Derivative Dispositions
  • 2.3 Are Dispositions Real?
  • 2.4 Scientific Explanation of Dispositions
  • 2.5 Are Bases ultimately Dispositional, or Non-dispositional?
  • 2.6 Objections to Dispositional Bases
    • (1) Apparent success of structural explanations
    • (2) The basis of any observed property must be an actual occurrent feature
    • (3) No logical connections between separate existences (Hume)
    • (4) Dispositions are essentially relational (Locke)
    • Summary
• 3. Problems in Classical Physics
  • Can Physics do Without Causal Powers?
  • 3.1 Newtonian Physics
  • 3.2 Descartes and Leibniz
  • 3.3 Aristotle's Physics
  • 3.4 Dispositions in Mathematical Physics
• 4. The Peculiarities of Quantum Physics
  • 4.1 Classical and Quantum Dispositions
  • 4.2 Quantum Experiments
  • 4.3 Quantum Ontologies
    • 1. Ontology of Events
    • 2. Ontology of Particles
    • 3. Ontology of Waves
    • 4. Ontology of Wave-particle Complementarity
    • 5. Ontology of Propensities
  • 4.4 The Problem of Measurements
    • Measurement by Observations
    • Measurement by Consciousnesses
    • Measurement by Actualising
    • No Special `Measurements'
    • What to do?
• 5. Reconsidering Philosophical Foundations
  • A Realist Philosophy of Nature
• 6. Actuality
  • 6.1 On What Can Be Actual
    • Purely Actual Particulars
    • Changeless Actualities
  • 6.2 Finite or Infinite?
    • Infinity in Mathematics
    • Finitism
    • Redefining the Finite
    • Potential Infinities
    • The Mathematics of Possibility
    • Semantics of Set Theory
    • Continuity
  • 6.3 Choices for Pure Actuality
    • Actualities are not substances or everyday objects
    • Newtonian corpuscles cannot be actual
    • Nothing fixed in spacetime
    • Actualities are not the instantaneous-present states of objects
    • Not extended processes
    • Not indivisible events
    • A `strand of history' is not actual
    • Actuality is not space or spacetime itself
    • Actuality could be a stage in an object
    • Actualities could be past events
    • Meaning of term `past-event'
• 7. Potentiality
  • 7.1 Change as Actualising
    • Kinesis
    • Parmenides' arguments
    • Do potential trees really exist?
    • Can potentialities themselves be objects?
    • Is Change (Kinesis) Now Intelligible?
  • 7.2 The Analysis of Actualising (Kinesis)
  • 7.3 Kinds of Potentialities
• 8. A Theory of Space and Time
  • 8.1 Possibilities as Places in Space and Time
    • Point Places in Which Space?
    • On Real Possibilities
  • 8.2 Extensiveness, Space and Time
    • Extensiveness and the Extensive Continuum
    • Metrics
    • Momentum Space?
  • 8.3 Past and Future
    • McTaggart's Argument
    • Time as the B-series
    • Time as Becoming
  • 8.4 Process Time
    • No Universal Serial Time
    • Local Process Times?
  • 8.5 One Global Process Time?
    • 1. Some Observer's Legal Time?
    • 2. Centre-of-mass of the universe?
    • 3. General Spacelike Hypersurfaces?
    • 4. Contingent Actualising?
    • Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking
  • 8.6 Necessary and Contingent Ordering
    • Appearance of a `Current Space'
    • Appearance of a `Global Process Time'
    • What Difference the Order Makes
    • Conclusion: Actualisation and Special Relativity
• 9. A Theory of Substance
  • 9.1 Traditional Views of Substances
  • 9.2 Propensity Fields
  • 9.3 Continuants (Substances) Which Endure Through Change?
    • 9.3.1 Unchanging Continuants
    • 9.3.2 Changeable Continuants
  • 9.4 Questions about Substances
    • 9.4.1 Individuals
    • 9.4.2 Matter and Form: Subject and Predicate
    • Knowability of Matter/Propensity and Form
    • Prime Matter?
    • 9.4.3 On Real Essences
    • 9.4.4 Elements
    • 9.4.5 On Time and Change
• 10. Quantum Substances
  • 10.1 Classical and Quantum Theories
  • 10.2 Probabilities and Propensities
    • Heisenberg
    • Propensitons
  • 10.3 Waves, Particles and Complementarity
    • Wave Behaviour?
    • Particle Behaviour?
    • Complementarity?
    • Two-Slit Experiment
    • Superpositions and Mixtures
    • Summary
  • 10.4 Measuring as Actualising
    • Irreversible Processes
  • 10.5 Nonlocalities
• 11. Two Stages of Propensities
  • 11.1 Point Events
    • Can all interactions be actual events?
    • Point localisations of the $\Psi$ function?
  • 11.2 Actual and Virtual Events as Distinct
    • Two Stages of Propensities and Events
    • Actual Events as Selections
    • Virtual Events
  • 11.3 `Gauge' Invariances
    • 1. Equivalent Configuration Spaces
    • 2. Equivalent Phases and Potential Gauges
    • 3. Equivalent `Infinitesimal' Sizes of Virtual Events
    • 4. Equivalent Exchanges of Identical Particles
    • Summary
  • 11.4 Quantum Substances
• 12. Measurements and Other Actualisations
  • 12.1 The Problem of Measurement
  • 12.2 Objective Actualisation - some proposals
    • 12.2.1 Simple schemes
      • 1. Actuality from present or future connections to our senses
      • 2. Actuality from Composite Objects
      • 3. Actuality from Macroscopic Objects
      • 4. Actuality from Alternative Interactions
      • 5. Actuality from Irreversible Interactions
      • 6. Actuality from Superpositions not inter-transformable
      • 7. Actuality from no general characteristic
      • 8. Actuality from point localisations in space and time
    • 12.2.2 Schematic Proposals
      • 1. Actualisations outside a `correlation length'
      • 2. Actualisations from some `effective temperature'
      • 3. Actualisations as localisation to gaussians wave-packets
      • 4. Actualisations from logarithmic terms in Schrödinger's equation
      • 5. Actualisations from statistical fluctuations in the Hamiltonian
    • 12.2.3 Quantitative Proposals
      • 1. Actualisations from energy differences
      • 2. Actualisations from inelastic energy differences
      • 3. Actualisations from gravitational differences
    • Comments
  • 12.3 Mind-dependent Actualisation - some proposals
  • 12.4 Conclusions
• 13. Summary of the Argument
  • 13.1 General Process Logic
  • 13.2 When actualities at points in ordinary space and time
  • 13.3 When actualities are selections of alternatives
• References
• Index
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