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75According to a wrong interpretation of the Bell theorem, it has been repeatedly claimed in recent times that we are forced by experiments to drop any possible form of realism in the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this paper I defend the simple thesis according to which the above claim cannot be consistently supported: the Bell theorem does not concern realism, and realism per se cannot be refuted in itself by any quantum experiment. As a consequence, realism in quantum mechanics is not som…Read more
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44Non-locality: A defence of widespread beliefsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (3): 297-313. 1996.
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104Laws Are Not DescriptionsInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 29 (3): 251-270. 2015.The view that takes laws of nature to be essentially nothing more than descriptions of facts is still rather popular. The present article, on the contrary, defends the claim that the only real motivation for defending a descriptive view of laws—the quest for ontological parsimony—entails too high a price to pay in philosophical terms. It is argued that nomic primitivism, namely the alternative option that takes laws to be primitive fundamental entities in our ontology, is decisively more appeali…Read more
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74Contextualism and nonlocality in the algebra of EPR observablesPhilosophy of Science 64 (3): 478-496. 1997.The Bell 1964 theorem states that nonlocality is a necessary feature of hidden variable theories that reproduce the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics. In view of the no-go theorems for non-contextual hidden variable theories already existing up to 1964, and due to Gleason and Bell, one is forced to acknowledge the contextual character of the hidden variable theory which the Bell 1964 theorem refers to. Both the mathematical and the physical justifications of this contextualism are rec…Read more
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9New Essays in Logic and Philosophy of Science (edited book)College Publications. 2010.The papers collected in this volume are based on the best contributions to the conference of the Italian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science (SILFS) that took place in Milan on 8-10 October 2007. The aim of the Society, since its foundation in 1952, has always been that of bringing together scholars - working in the broad areas of Logic, Philosophy of Science and History of Science - who share an open-minded approach to their disciplines and regard them as essentially requiring continuou…Read more
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21On Time Asymmetry and History in an Everett Quantum WorldFoundations of Physics 30 (9): 1525-1538. 2000.It is usually held that the standard collapse model of a quantum measurement process grounds a kind of fundamental time asymmetry. The question whether and how it should be possible to reconstruct uniquely one's own history in an Everett no-collapse interpretation of quantum theory is investigated. A particular approach to the Everett interpretation, due to John S. Bell, is considered, according to which one of the chief claims of the Everett quantum theory is precisely that it allows us to do w…Read more
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“l’eterno Mistero Del Mondo È La Sua Comprensibilità": Filosofia e conoscenza scientifica nel pensiero di EinsteinNuova Civiltà Delle Macchine 24 (3). 2006.
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16Il" cemento dell'universo": sul concetto di causa in microfisicaRivista di Filosofia 89 (1): 27-52. 1998.
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19The Impossible Causality: The No Hidden Variables Theorem of John von NeumannVienna Circle Institute Yearbook 8 173-188. 2001.The debate over the question whether quantum mechanics should be considered as a complete account of microphenomena has a long and deeply involved history, a turning point in which has been certainly the Einstein-Bohr debate, with the ensuing charge of incompleteness raised by the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument. In quantum mechanics, physical systems can be prepared in pure states that nevertheless have in general positive dispersion for most physical quantities; hence in the EPR argument, the…Read more
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52The uninvited guest: 'local realism' and the Bell theoremIn Henk W. de Regt (ed.), Epsa Philosophy of Science: Amsterdam 2009, Springer. pp. 137--149. 2010.According to a wrong interpretation of the Bell theorem, it has been repeatedly claimed in recent times that we are forced by experiments to drop any possible form of realism in the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this paper I defend the simple thesis according to which the above claim cannot be consistently supported: the Bell theorem does not concern realism, and realism per se cannot be refuted in itself by any quantum experiment. As a consequence, realism in quantum mechanics is not som…Read more
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74La natura delle cose: introduzione ai fondamenti e alla filosofia della fisica (edited book)Carocci. 2005.The year 2005 has been named the World Year of Physics in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's "Miracle Year," in which he published four landmark papers which had deep and great influence on the last and the current century: quantum theory, general relativity, and statistical mechanics. Despite the enormous importance that Einstein’s discoveries played in these theories, most physicists adopt a version of quantum theory which is incompatible with the idea that motivated Ein…Read more
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23Non-locality and theories of causationIn T. Placek & J. Butterfield (eds.), Non-Locality and Modality, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 223--234. 2001.The paper investigates the question whether the nature of non-locality in quantum mechanics can be better understood by viewing it as grounded in some sort of causation. A general conclusion that may be drawn from the discussion above is that, as far as ordinary quantum mechanics is concerned, we are facing a dilemma: either the notion of causation is interpreted in such general terms so as to lose sight of the original underlying intuition - so that we seem to do nothing but giving a different …Read more
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103Einstein, bell, and nonseparable realismBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (3): 309-329. 1995.In the context of stochastic hidden variable theories, Howard has argued that the role of separability—spatially separated systems possess distinct real states—has been underestimated. Howard claims that separability is equivalent to Jarrett‘s completeness: this equivalence should imply that the Bell theorem forces us to give up either separability or locality. Howard's claim, however, is shown to be ill founded since it is based on an implausible assumption. The necessity of sharply distinguish…Read more
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30In recent years, a number of research projects have been proposed whose goal is to build large-scale simulations of brain mechanisms at unprecedented levels of biological accuracy. Here it is argued that the roles these simulations are expected to play in neuroscientific research go beyond the “synthetic method” extensively adopted in Artificial Intelligence and biorobotics. In addition we show that, over and above the common goal of simulating brain mechanisms, these projects pursue various mod…Read more
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99Relational quantum mechanicsStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.Relational quantum mechanics is an interpretation of quantum theory which discards the notions of absolute state of a system, absolute value of its physical quantities, or absolute event. The theory describes only the way systems affect each other in the course of physical interactions. State and physical quantities refer always to the interaction, or the relation, between two systems. Nevertheless, the theory is assumed to be complete. The physical content of quantum theory is understood as exp…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Quantum Mechanics |