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85Arló-Costa, H., 479 Armour-Garb, B., 593 Azzouni, J., 329 Batens, D., 267Journal of Philosophical Logic 30 (619). 2001.
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13An Assessment of Contemporary Polish OntologyIn Contemporary Polish Ontology, De Gruyter. pp. 271-294. 2019.
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IntroductionIn Tomasz Bigaj & Christian Wüthrich (eds.), Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics, Brill | Rodopi. 2015.
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Essentialism and modern physicsIn Tomasz Bigaj & Christian Wüthrich (eds.), Metaphysics in Contemporary Physics, Brill | Rodopi. 2015.
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Plugging holes in sophisticated substantivalismIn Antonio Vassallo (ed.), The Foundations of Spacetime Physics: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge. 2022.
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47Counterparts, Essences and Quantified Modal LogicLogic and Logical Philosophy 1-14. forthcoming.It is commonplace to formalize propositions involving essential properties of objects in a language containing modal operators and quantifiers. Assuming David Lewis’s counterpart theory as a semantic framework for quantified modal logic, I will show that certain statements discussed in the metaphysics of modality de re, such as the sufficiency condition for essential properties, cannot be faithfully formalized. A natural modification of Lewis’s translation scheme seems to be an obvious solution …Read more
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180Entanglement and non-factorizabilityStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 44 (3): 215-221. 2013.Quantum mechanics tells us that states involving indistinguishable fermions must be antisymmetrized. This is often taken to mean that indistinguishable fermions are always entangled. We consider several notions of entanglement and argue that on the best of them, indistinguishable fermions are not always entangled. We also present a simple but unconventional way of representing fermionic states that allows us to maintain a link between entanglement and non-factorizability.
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21How to Justify the Symmetrization Postulate in Quantum MechanicsJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 53 (3): 239-257. 2022.The aim of this paper is to reconstruct and correct one argument in support of the symmetrization postulate in quantum mechanics. I identify the central premise of the argument as a thesis specifying a particular ontic property of quantum superpositions. The precise form of this thesis depends on some underlying assumptions of a metaphysical character. I compare the exchange degeneracy argument with alternative formal arguments for the symmetrization postulate, and I discuss the role and meaning…Read more
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392How Humean is Bohumianism?Foundations of Physics (10): 1-18. 2020.An important part of the influential Humean doctrine in philosophy is the supervenience principle (sometimes referred to as the principle of separability). This principle asserts that the complete state of the world supervenes on the intrinsic properties of its most fundamental components and their spatiotemporal relations (the so-called Humean mosaic). There are well-known arguments in the literature purporting to show that in quantum mechanics the Humean supervenience principle is violated, du…Read more
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21Synchronic and diachronic identity for elementary particlesEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 10 (3): 1-17. 2020.The main focus of this paper is on the notion of transtemporal identity applied to quantum particles. I pose the question of how the symmetrization postulate with respect to instantaneous states of particles of the same type affects the possibility of identifying interacting particles before and after their interaction. The answer to this question turns out to be contingent upon the choice between two available conceptions of synchronic individuation of quantum particles that I call the orthodox…Read more
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24On Essential Structures and SymmetriesIn Bartłomiej Skowron (ed.), Contemporary Polish Ontology, De Gruyter. pp. 1-24. 2019.
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28On discernibility in symmetric languages: the case of quantum particlesSynthese 198 (9): 8485-8502. 2020.In this paper I consider the question of whether absolute discernibility is attainable in symmetric languages. Simon Saunders has proven that all facts expressible in first-order language with identity can be equivalently stated within its symmetric sublanguage. I use this result to show specifically how particles of the same type can be absolutely discerned in the permutation-invariant language of the quantum theory of many particles.
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26Counterfactuals and Spatiotemporal EventsSynthese 142 (1): 1-19. 2004.One of the basic assumptions of David Lewis's formal semantics of counterfactuals is that the crucial relation of comparative similarity between possible worlds is a linear ordering.Yet there are arguments that when we take into account relativistic features of space-time, this relationshould be only a partial ordering. The first part of the paper deals with the question of how to formulate appropriatetruth conditions for counterfactuals under the supposition of a partial ordering of possible wo…Read more
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10Entanglement of N Distinguishable ParticlesStudies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 27 (40). 2012.
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53Are field quanta real objects? Some remarks on the ontology of quantum field theoryStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 62 145-157. 2018.
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11How to strengthen Bell's theorem using counterfactualsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (1): 58-66. 2009.
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Przyczynowość w Szkole Lwowsko-WarszawskiejFilozofia Nauki 2. 1994.The author presents and critically analyses different accounts of causal relation given by the main representants of Lvov-Warsaw School in philosophy. Although there are considerable differences between particular approaches to this problem, it is possible at least to distinguish the key questions, analysed and anwsered by these philosophers. Among them are such questions as: how to define „causal relation”, what are its formal features, what is the space-time localization of the effect and the …Read more
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108This book uses the formal semantics of counterfactual conditionals to analyze the problem of non-locality in quantum mechanics. Counterfactual 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 …Read more
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24Exchanging Quantum ParticlesPhilosophia Scientiae 19 185-198. 2015.The mathematical notion of a permutation of indices in the state description admits different physical interpretations. Two main interpretations analyzed in this paper are: exchange of essences and exchange of haecceities. It is argued that adopting the essentialist approach leads to the conclusion, contrary to the conventional wisdom, that quantum particles of the same type are sometimes discernible by their properties. The indiscernibility thesis can be supported only by the alternative interp…Read more
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91Causes, conditions and counterfactualsAxiomathes 15 (4): 599-619. 2005.The article deals with one particular problem created by the counterfactual analysis of causality à la Lewis, namely the context-sensitivity problem or, as I prefer to call it, the background condition problem. It appears that Lewis’ counterfactual definition of causality cannot distinguish between proper causes and mere causal conditions – i.e. factors necessary for the effect to occur, but commonly not seen as causally efficacious. The proposal is put forward to amend the Lewis definition with…Read more
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87Three-valued logic, indeterminacy and quantum mechanicsJournal of Philosophical Logic 30 (2): 97-119. 2001.The paper consists of two parts. The first part begins with the problem of whether the original three-valued calculus, invented by J. Łukasiewicz, really conforms to his philosophical and semantic intuitions. I claim that one of the basic semantic assumptions underlying Łukasiewicz's three-valued logic should be that if under any possible circumstances a sentence of the form "X will be the case at time t" is true (resp. false) at time t, then this sentence must be already true (resp. false) at p…Read more
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29On Some Troubles with the Metaphysics of Fermionic CompositionsFoundations of Physics 46 (9): 1168-1184. 2016.In this paper I discuss some metaphysical consequences of an unorthodox approach to the problem of the identity and individuality of “indistinguishable” quantum particles. This approach is based on the assumption that the only admissible way of individuating separate components of a given system is with the help of the permutation-invariant qualitative properties of the total system. Such a method of individuation, when applied to fermionic compositions occupying so-called GMW-nonentangled state…Read more
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Jakościowe teorie czasoprzestrzeniFilozofia Nauki 4. 1995.This is an attempt to formulate (along the line of H. Field's nominalization program) purely qualitative versions of two theories of space time: Galilean and Minkowskian theories. The starting point is to present qualitative theory for affine geometry, which is based only on one primitive predicate: „between”. Then it is shown that with the help of this predicate whole mathematical structure of affine geometry can be reconstructed as a simple definitional extension. As a next step it is shown in…Read more
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145Dispositional Monism and the Circularity ObjectionMetaphysica 11 (1): 39-47. 2010.Three basic positions regarding the nature of fundamental properties are: dispositional monism, categorical monism and the mixed view. Dispositional monism apparently involves a regress or circularity, while an unpalatable consequence of categorical monism and the mixed view is that they are committed to quidditism. I discuss Alexander Bird's defence of dispositional monism based on the structuralist approach to identity. I argue that his solution does not help standard dispositional essentialis…Read more
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157Metaphysics: A Guided Tour for BeginnersCreatespace Independent Pub. 2012.This book contains a concise introduction to one of the most fundamental branches of philosophy, which deals with reality and its nature. Among the topics discussed are such metaphysical questions as "Are we fundamentally free?", "Does time really pass?", "Are there any abstract objects?", "What is causation?", "What are necessary and possible truths?". The book is aimed at absolute beginners, so it does not presuppose any previous knowledge of philosophy from the reader. For those who would lik…Read more
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Świat kwantowy w ujęciu kontrfaktycznym: odpowiedź Witoldowi StrawińskiemuFilozofia Nauki 1. 2008.This is a response to a critical review of my book Non-locality and Possible Worlds (Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt 2006) by Witold Strawiński. I present arguments why counterfactual conditionals are needed in the description of quantum-mechanical phenomena, and in particular in the analysis of the condition of locality. I rebut arguments against my choice of the relation of similarity between possible worlds offered by W. Strawiński and M. Dickson. In the later part of the article I address some other…Read more
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119On Discernibility and SymmetriesErkenntnis 80 (1): 117-135. 2015.This paper addresses the issue of the multiplicity of various grades of discernibility that can be defined in model theory. Building upon earlier works on the subject, I first expand the known logical categorizations of discernibility by introducing several symmetry-based concepts of discernibility, including one I call “witness symmetry-discernibility”. Then I argue that only grades of discernibility stronger than this one possess certain intuitive features necessary to individuate objects. Fur…Read more
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181How to evaluate counterfactuals in the quantum worldSynthese 190 (4): 619-637. 2013.In the article I discuss possible amendments and corrections to Lewis’s semantics for counterfactuals that are necessary in order to account for the indeterministic and non-local character of the quantum world. I argue that Lewis’s criteria of similarity between possible worlds produce incorrect valuations for alternate-outcome counterfactuals in the EPR case. Later I discuss an alternative semantics which rejects the notion of miraculous events and relies entirely on the comparison of the agree…Read more
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37This is an extended critique of comments made by Abner Shimony and Howard Stein on Henry Stapp’s proof of the non-locality of quantum mechanics. Although I claim that ultimately Stapp’s proof does not establish its purported conclusion, yet Shimony and Stein’s criticism contains a number of weak points, which need to be clarified.
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