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This book uses the formal semantics of counterfactual conditionals to analyze the problem of non-locality in quantum mechanics. Counterfactual conditionals (subjunctive conditionals) enter the analysis of quantum entangled systems in that they enable us to precisely formulate the locality condition that purports to exclude the existence of causal interactions between spatially separated parts of a system. They also make it possible to speak consistently about alternative measuring settings, and to explicate what is meant by quantum property attributions. The book develops the possible-world semantics of quantum counterfactuals using David Lewis’s famous approach as a starting point but modifying it significantly in order to achieve compatibility with the demands of the special theory of relativity as well as quantum mechanics. There have been several attempts to use counterfactual semantics to strengthen Bell’s theorem and its cognates such as the GHZ and Hardy theorems. These are critically evaluated in the book. Finally, a counterfactual reconstruction of the EPR argument and Bell’s theorem is proposed that sheds a new light on their philosophical consequences regarding the relations between realism and local causation.
Tomasz Bigaj is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Philosophy, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland. He received a PhD in philosophy in 1996 and an M.Sc. in physics in 1987 both from Warsaw University. In 2001-2002 he was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan, and he also held temporary teaching positions at Rowan University and the University of Illinois at Springfield. His area of specialization includes philosophy of physics and mathematics (with particular emphasis on interpretations of quantum mechanics), metaphysics, and philosophical logic. He has published over twenty professional papers (most recently “Three-valued Logic, Indeterminacy and Quantum Mechanics”, Journal of Philosophical Logic, 30, 97-119, 2001; “The Indispensability Argument: A New Chance for Empiricism in Mathematics”, Foundations of Science, 8, 173-200, 2003, and “Counterfactuals and Spatiotemporal Events”, Synthese, 142, 1-19, 2004.), and two books in Polish: Mathematics and the Real World in 1997 and Quanta, Numbers and Abstracts in 2002
Epistemische Studien Band 10
eBook for Adobe Reader, ISBN 3-938793-29-5
286 pp. , 22,50 Euro. Single licence for Windows, Mac, Unix and Mobile! Special conditions for libraries.
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