The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds

Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-19-823838-6
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 284 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 535 g

This is an open access title. It is available to read and download as a free PDF version on Oxford Academic and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Jeffrey Barrett presents the most comprehensive study yet of a problem that has puzzled physicists and philosophers since the 1930s. The standard theory of quantum mechanics is in one sense the most successful physical theory ever, predicting the behaviour of the basic constituents of all physical things; no other theory has ever made such accurate empirical predictions. However, if one tries to understand the theory as providing a complete and accurate framework for the description of the behaviour of all physical interactions, it becomes evident that the theory is ambiguous, or even logically inconsistent. The most notable attempt to formulate the theory so as to deal with this problem, the quantum measurement problem, was initiated by Hugh Everett III in the 1950s. Barrett gives a careful and challenging examination and evaluation of the work of Everett and those who have followed him. His informal approach, minimizing technicality, will make the book accessible and illuminating for philosophers and physicists alike. Anyone interested in the interpretation of quantum mechanics should read it.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barrett, Jeffrey A.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie der Mathematik, Philosophie der Physik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Quantenphysik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Philosophie der Mathematik
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Elektromagnetismus Quantenoptik, Nichtlineare Optik, Laserphysik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: A Brief Introduction

- 2: The Standard Formulation of Quantum Mechanics

- 3: The Theory of the Universal Wave Function

- 4: The Bare Theory and Determinate Experience

- 5: Selecting a Branch

- 6: Many Worlds

- 7: Many Minds

- 8: Many Histories

- 9: The Determinate-Experience Problem

- Appendices

- References

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jeffrey Barrett is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.