Part two - Physics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
Summary
In Part one the description of reality by modal interpretations has been developed as far as possible. In this part I determine whether modal interpretations are empirically adequate by considering their descriptions of measurements.
In Chapter 10 I focus on the measurement problem. After a measurement,according to our observations, the measurement device displays a definite outcome. Such an outcome is traditionally called a pointer reading and the question is whether modal interpretations manage to ascribe such pointer readings.
In the standard formulation of quantum mechanics one predicts by means the Born rule the probabilities and the correlations with which measurements have outcomes. In Chapter 11 I discuss whether modal interpretations can reproduce these empirically correct predictions.
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- Information
- A Philosopher's Understanding of Quantum MechanicsPossibilities and Impossibilities of a Modal Interpretation, pp. 171 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000