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85The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. D. I. Blokhintsev (review)Philosophy of Science 37 (1): 153-156. 1970.
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79Von Neumann's projection postulate as a probability conditionalization rule in quantum mechanicsJournal of Philosophical Logic 6 (1). 1977.
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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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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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71In defense of a “single-world” interpretation of quantum mechanicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72 251-255. 2020.
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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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69From Micro to Macro: A Solution to the Measurement Problem of Quantum MechanicsPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988. 1988.Philosophical debate on the measurement problem of quantum mechanics has, for the most part, been confined to the non-relativistic version of the theory. Quantizing quantum field theory, or making quantum mechanics relativistic, yields a conceptual framework capable of dealing with the creation and annihilation of an indefinite number of particles in interaction with fields, i.e. quantum systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. I show that a solution to the standard measurement pro…Read more
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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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60Quantum logic, conditional probability, and interferencePhilosophy of Science 49 (3): 402-421. 1982.Friedman and Putnam have argued (Friedman and Putnam 1978) that the quantum logical interpretation of quantum mechanics gives us an explanation of interference that the Copenhagen interpretation cannot supply without invoking an additional ad hoc principle, the projection postulate. I show that it is possible to define a notion of equivalence of experimental arrangements relative to a pure state φ , or (correspondingly) equivalence of Boolean subalgebras in the partial Boolean algebra of project…Read more
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59Under the spell of Bohr (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 24 (1): 78-90. 1973.
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58On local realism and commutativityStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (4): 863-878. 2007.
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53Itamar Pitowsky 1950–2010Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2): 85-. 2010.
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45How to solve the measurement problem of quantum mechanicsFoundations of Physics 18 (7): 701-722. 1988.A solution to the measurement problem of quantum mechanics is proposed within the framework of an intepretation according to which only quantum systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom have determinate properties, i.e., determinate values for (some) observables of the theory. The important feature of the infinite case is the existence of many inequivalent irreducible Hilbert space representations of the algebra of observables, which leads, in effect, to a restriction on the superpos…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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42Quantum probabilities: an information-theoretic interpretationIn Claus Beisbart & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Probabilities in Physics, Oxford University Press. pp. 231. 2011.
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41A Paradox of Information.A Comment on Miller's New Paradox of Information.A Paradox of Zero Information.Miller's So-called Paradox: A Reply to Professor J. L. Mackie.Miller's paradox of Information.The Straight and Narrow Rule of Induction: A Reply to Dr Bub and Mr Radner.New Mysteries for Old: The Transfiguration of Miller's ParadoxJournal of Symbolic Logic 35 (1): 124-127. 1970.
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41Quantum Physics and the Philosophical Tradition. Aage Petersen (review)Philosophy of Science 37 (1): 156-158. 1970.
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41Postscript to the Logic of Scientific Discovery (review)Canadian Journal of Philosophy 15 (3): 539-552. 1985.
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38Quantum mechanics without the projection postulateFoundations of Physics 22 (5): 737-754. 1992.I show that the quantum state ω can be interpreted as defining a probability measure on a subalgebra of the algebra of projection operators that is not fixed (as in classical statistical mechanics) but changes with ω and appropriate boundary conditions, hence with the dynamics of the theory. This subalgebra, while not embeddable into a Boolean algebra, will always admit two-valued homomorphisms, which correspond to the different possible ways in which a set of “determinate” quantities (selected …Read more
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38Understanding the Frauchiger–Renner ArgumentFoundations of Physics 51 (2): 1-9. 2021.In 2018, Daniela Frauchiger and Renato Renner published an article in Nature Communications entitled ‘Quantum theory cannot consistently describe the use of itself.’ The argument has been attacked as flawed from a variety of interpretational perspectives. I clarify the significance of the result as a sequence of actions and inferences by agents modeled as quantum systems evolving unitarily at all times. At no point does the argument appeal to a ‘collapse’ of the quantum state following a measure…Read more
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37Poincaré'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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32On the structure of quantal proposition systemsFoundations of Physics 24 (9): 1261-1279. 1994.I define sublaltices of quantum propositions that can be taken as having determinate (but perhaps unknown) truth values for a given quantum state, in the sense that sufficiently many two-valued maps satisfying a Boolean homomorphism condition exist on each determinate sublattice to generate a Kolmogorov probability space for the probabilities defined by the slate. I show that these sublattices are maximal, subject to certain constraints, from which it follows easily that they are unique. I discu…Read more
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32The Conceptual Foundations of Contemporary Relativity Theory. J. C. GravesPhilosophy of Science 41 (4): 431-433. 1974.
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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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30Paradigms and paradoxes: The philosophical challenge of the quantum domainPhilosophia 6 (2): 333-344. 1976.
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29Indeterminacy and Enlanglemenl: The Challenge of QuantumIn Peter Clark & Katherine Hawley (eds.), Philosophy of Science Today, Oxford University Press Uk. pp. 236. 2003.
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26John von Neumann and the Foundations of Quantum PhysicsSpringer Verlag. 2013.John von Neumann (1903-1957) was undoubtedly one of the scientific geniuses of the 20th century. The main fields to which he contributed include various disciplines of pure and applied mathematics, mathematical and theoretical physics, logic, theoretical computer science, and computer architecture. Von Neumann was also actively involved in politics and science management and he had a major impact on US government decisions during, and especially after, the Second World War. There exist several p…Read more
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