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22Why the Tsirelson bound?In Yemima Ben-Menahem & Meir Hemmo (eds.), Probability in Physics, Springer. pp. 167--185. 2012.
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117A uniqueness theorem for ‘no collapse’ interpretations of quantum mechanicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (2): 181-219. 1996.We prove a uniqueness theorem showing that, subject to certain natural constraints, all 'no collapse' interpretations of quantum mechanics can be uniquely characterized and reduced to the choice of a particular preferred observable as determine (definite, sharp). We show how certain versions of the modal interpretation, Bohm's 'causal' interpretation, Bohr's complementarity interpretation, and the orthodox (Dirac-von Neumann) interpretation without the projection postulate can be recovered from …Read more
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8The Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics by R. I. G. Hughes (review)Isis 82 174-175. 1991.
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70On Bohr's response to EPR: II (review)Foundations of Physics 20 (8): 929-941. 1990.In my reconstruction of Bohr's reply to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen argument, I pointed out that Bohr showed explicitly, within the framework of the complementarity interpretation, how a locally maximal measurement on a subsystem S2 of a composite system S1+S2, consisting of two spatially separated subsystems, can make determinate both a locally maximal Boolean subalgebra for S2 and a locally maximal Boolean subalgebra for S1. As it stands, this response is open to an objection. In this note, I …Read more
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30Measurement and “beables” in quantum mechanicsFoundations of Physics 21 (1): 25-42. 1991.It is argued that the measurement problem reduces to the problem of modeling quasi-classical systems in a modified quantum mechanics with superselection rules. A measurement theorem is proved, demonstrating, on the basis of a principle for selecting the quantities of a system that are determinate (i.e., have values) in a given state, that after a suitable interaction between a systemS and a quasi-classical systemM, essentially only the quantity measured in the interaction and the indicator quant…Read more
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8Review: The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40 (2). 1989.
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196Indeterminacy and entanglement: the challenge of quantum mechanicsBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (4): 597-615. 2000.I explore the nature of the problem generated by the transition from classical to quantum mechanics, and I survey some of the different responses to this problem. I show briefly how recent work on quantum information over the past ten years has led to a shift of focus, in which the puzzling features of quantum mechanics are seen as a resource to be developed rather than a problem to be solved
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98Quantum Mechanics as a Principle TheoryStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 31 (1): 75-94. 2000.I show how quantum mechanics, like the theory of relativity, can be understood as a 'principle theory' in Einstein's sense, and I use this notion to explore the approach to the problem of interpretation developed in my book Interpreting the Quantum World.
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15Book Review:Niels Bohr's Philosophy of Physics Dugald Murdoch (review)Philosophy of Science 57 (2): 344-. 1990.
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76How to interpret quantum mechanicsErkenntnis 41 (2). 1994.I formulate the interpretation problem of quantum mechanics as the problem of identifying all possible maximal sublattices of quantum propositions that can be taken as simultaneously determinate, subject to certain constraints that allow the representation of quantum probabilities as measures over truth possibilities in the standard sense, and the representation of measurements in terms of the linear dynamics of the theory. The solution to this problem yields a modal interpretation that I show t…Read more
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80Von Neumann's projection postulate as a probability conditionalization rule in quantum mechanicsJournal of Philosophical Logic 6 (1). 1977.
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30Paradigms and paradoxes: The philosophical challenge of the quantum domainPhilosophia 6 (2): 333-344. 1976.
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4The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: An Interactive Interpretation by Richard Healey (review)Isis 82 606-607. 1991.
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73Non-Local Hidden Variable Theories and Bell's InequalityPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1978 45-53. 1978.Bell's proof purports to show that any hidden variable theory satisfying a physically reasonable locality condition is characterized by an inequality which is inconsistent with the quantum statistics. It is shown that Bell's inequality actually characterizes a feature of hidden variable theories which is much weaker than locality in the sense considered physically motivated. We consider an example of non- local hidden variable theory which reproduces the quantum statistics. A simple extension of…Read more
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91Some reflections on quantum logic and schrödinger's catBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 30 (1): 27-39. 1979.
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10Incompleteness, Nonlocality, and Realism (review)International Studies in Philosophy 22 (3): 140-141. 1990.
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42Quantum probabilities: an information-theoretic interpretationIn Claus Beisbart & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Probabilities in Physics, Oxford University Press. pp. 231. 2011.
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117Local Realism and Conditional ProbabilityFoundations of Physics 36 (4): 585-601. 2006.Emilio Santos has argued (Santos, Studies in History and Philosophy of Physics http: //arxiv-org/abs/quant-ph/0410193) that to date, no experiment has provided a loophole-free refutation of Bell’s inequalities. He believes that this provides strong evidence for the principle of local realism, and argues that we should reject this principle only if we have extremely strong evidence. However, recent work by Malley and Fine (Non-commuting observables and local realism, http: //arxiv-org/abs/quant-p…Read more
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92Hidden variables and localityFoundations of Physics 6 (5): 511-525. 1976.Bell's problem of the possibility of a local hidden variable theory of quantum phenomena is considered in the context of the general problem of representing the statistical states of a quantum mechanical system by measures on a classical probability space, and Bell's result is presented as a generalization of Maczynski's theorem for maximal magnitudes. The proof of this generalization is shown to depend on the impossibility of recovering the quantum statistics for sequential probabilities in a c…Read more
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38Poincaré's “Les conceptions nouvelles de la matière”Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 43 (4): 221-225. 2012.We present a translation of Poincaré's hitherto untranslated 1912 essay together with a brief introduction describing the essay's contemporary interest, both for Poincaré scholarship and for the history and philosophy of atomism. In the introduction we distinguish two easily conflated strands in Poincaré's thinking about atomism, one focused on the possibility of deciding the atomic hypothesis, the other focused on the question whether it can ever be determined that the analysis of matter has a …Read more
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116Contextuality and Nonlocality in 'No Signaling' TheoriesFoundations of Physics 39 (7): 690-711. 2009.We define a family of ‘no signaling’ bipartite boxes with arbitrary inputs and binary outputs, and with a range of marginal probabilities. The defining correlations are motivated by the Klyachko version of the Kochen-Specker theorem, so we call these boxes Kochen-Specker-Klyachko boxes or, briefly, KS-boxes. The marginals cover a variety of cases, from those that can be simulated classically to the superquantum correlations that saturate the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality, when the KS-box…Read more
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43Quantum Computation: Where Does the Speed-up Come From?In Alisa Bokulich & Gregg Jaeger (eds.), Philosophy of quantum information and entanglement, Cambridge University Press. pp. 231--246. 2010.
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17On the completeness of quantum mechanicsIn C. A. Hooker (ed.), Contemporary Research in the Foundations and Philosophy of Quantum Theory, D. Reidel. pp. 1--65. 1973.
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The Interpretation of Quantum MechanicsBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 27 (3): 295-297. 1976.
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145Maxwell's Demon and the Thermodynamics of ComputationStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 32 (4): 569-579. 2001.It is generally accepted, following Landauer and Bennett, that the process of measurement involves no minimum entropy cost, but the erasure of information in resetting the memory register of a computer to zero requires dissipating heat into the environment. This thesis has been challenged recently in a two-part article by Earman and Norton. I review some relevant observations in the thermodynamics of computation and argue that Earman and Norton are mistaken: there is in principle no entropy cost…Read more
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11Review of Jeffrey Bub: Interpreting the Quantum World (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (4): 637-641. 1998.
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66Is cognitive neuropsychology possible?Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 1 417-427. 1994.The aim of cognitive neuropsychology is to articulate the functional architecture underlying normal cognition, on the basis of cognitive performance data involving brain-damaged subjects. Glymour (forthcoming) formulates a discovery problem for cognitive neuropsychology, in the sense of formal learning theory, concerning the existence of a reliable methodology, and argues that the problem is insoluble: granted certain apparently plausible assumptions about the form of neuropsychological theories…Read more
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