On Physics and Philosophy / / Bernard d'Espagnat.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: d'Espagnat, Bernard,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (520 p.) :; 3 line illus.

Among the great ironies of quantum mechanics is not only that its conceptual foundations seem strange even to the physicists who use it, but that philosophers have largely ignored it. Here, Bernard d'Espagnat argues that quantum physics--by casting doubts on once hallowed concepts such as space, material objects, and causality-demands serious reconsideration of most of traditional philosophy. On Physics and Philosophy is an accessible, mathematics-free reflection on the philosophical meaning of the quantum revolution, by one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. D'Espagnat presents an objective account of the main guiding principles of contemporary physics-in particular, quantum mechanics-followed by a look at just what consequences these should imply for philosophical thinking. The author begins by describing recent discoveries in quantum physics such as nonseparability, and explicating the significance of contemporary developments such as decoherence. Then he proceeds to set various philosophical theories of knowledge--such as materialism, realism, Kantism, and neo-Kantism--against the conceptual problems quantum theory raises. His overall conclusion is that while the physical implications of quantum theory suggest that scientific knowledge will never truly describe mind-independent reality, the notion of such an ultimate reality--one we can never access directly or rationally and which he calls "veiled reality"--remains conceptually necessary nonetheless.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- PART 1: PHYSICAL FACTS AND RELATED CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS -- CHAPTER 1 Broad Overview -- CHAPTER 2 Overstepping the Limits of the Framework of Familiar Concepts -- CHAPTER 3 Nonseparability and Bell’s Theorem -- CHAPTER 4 Objectivity and Empirical Reality -- CHAPTER 5 Quantum Physics and Realism -- CHAPTER 6 Universal Laws and the “Reality” Question -- CHAPTER 7 Antirealism and Physics; the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Problem; Methodological Operationalism -- CHAPTER 8 Measurement and Decoherence, Universality Revisited -- CHAPTER 9 Various Realist Attempts -- CHAPTER 10 Schro¨ dinger’s Cat, Wigner’s Friend, and Veiled Reality -- PART 2: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS -- CHAPTER 11 Science and Philosophy -- CHAPTER 12 Materialisms -- CHAPTER 13 Suggestions from Kantism -- CHAPTER 14 Causality and Observational Predictability -- CHAPTER 15 Explanation and Phenomena -- CHAPTER 16 Mind and Things -- CHAPTER 17 Pragmatic-Transcendental versus Veiled Reality Approaches -- CHAPTER 18 Objects and Consciousness -- CHAPTER 19 The “Ground of Things” -- APPENDIX 1 The Bell Theorem -- APPENDIX 2 Consistent Histories, Counterfactuality, and Bell’s Theorem -- APPENDIX 3 Correlation-at-a-Distance in the Broglie-Bohm Model -- References -- Name Index -- Subject Index