Foundations of Relational Realism (eBook)

A Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Nature

Michael Epperson, Elias Zafiris (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2013
422 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-0-7391-8033-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Foundations of Relational Realism presents an intuitive interpretation of quantum mechanics, based on a revised decoherent histories interpretation, structured within a category theoretic topological formalism.

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If there is a central conceptual framework that has reliably borne the weight of modern physics as it ascends into the twenty-first century, it is the framework of quantum mechanics. Because of its enduring stability in experimental application, physics has today reached heights that not only inspire wonder, but arguably exceed the limits of intuitive vision, if not intuitive comprehension. For many physicists and philosophers, however, the currently fashionable tendency toward exotic interpretation of the theoretical formalism is recognized not as a mark of ascent for the tower of physics, but rather an indicator of swayone that must be dampened rather than encouraged if practical progress is to continue. In this unique two-part volume, designed to be comprehensible to both specialists and non-specialists, the authors chart out a pathway forward by identifying the central deficiency in most interpretations of quantum mechanics: That in its conventional, metrical depiction of extension, inherited from the Enlightenment, objects are characterized as fundamental to relationsi.e., such that relations presuppose objects but objects do not presuppose relations. The authors, by contrast, argue that quantum mechanics exemplifies the fact that physical extensiveness is fundamentally topological rather than metrical, with its proper logico-mathematical framework being category theoretic rather than set theoretic. By this thesis, extensiveness fundamentally entails not only relations of objects, but also relations of relations. Thus, the fundamental quanta of quantum physics are properly defined as units of logico-physical relation rather than merely units of physical relata as is the current convention. Objects are always understood as relata, and likewise relations are always understood objectively. In this way, objects and relations are coherently defined as mutually implicative. The conventional notion of a history as ';a story about fundamental objects' is thereby reversed, such that the classical ';objects' become the story by which we understand physical systems that are fundamentally histories of quantum events.These are just a few of the novel critical claims explored in this volumeclaims whose exemplification in quantum mechanics will, the authors argue, serve more broadly as foundational principles for the philosophy of nature as it evolves through the twenty-first century and beyond.

Autor

Michael Epperson is director of the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at California State University, Sacramento, where he is a research professor and principal investigator. He is the author of Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Elias Zafiris is research professor in theoretical and mathematical physics at the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Athens, and is currently a visiting professor in the Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He is also a senior research fellow and principal investigator at the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at California State University, Sacramento.

Inhalt

PrefacePart I: Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Relational RealismChapter 1: Introduction: Relational Realism: A Program in Speculative PhilosophyChapter 2: Substance and Logic in Quantum MechanicsChapter 3: Predication in Quantum MechanicsChapter 4: Logical Causality in Quantum Mechanics: A Relational Realist OntologyChapter 5: Integrating Logical Relation and Extensive Relation: Mereotopology and Quantum Mechanics Interlude: Part II: Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Relational RealismChapter 6: Notion of Localization ProcessesChapter 7: Sheaves of Germs: The Topological CaseChapter 8: Sheaves of Boolean Germs: The Quantum Topological CaseChapter 9: Functorial Entanglement and Logical ClassificationChapter 10: Quantum Localization in a Broader Conceptual PerspectiveChapter 11: Recapitulation: A Semantic Bridge Between Process Metaphysics and Quantum Theory via SheavesBibliographyIndexAbout the Authors

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.6.2013
• Reihe/Serie: Contemporary Whitehead Studies
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Quantenphysik
• Schlagworte: Alfred North Whitehead • Boolean logic • Contemporary Philosophy • Logic • Mathematics • Metaphysics • Philosophy of Physics • philosophy of science • Physics • quantum mechanics • set theory • speculative philosophy • theoretical physics
• ISBN-10: 0-7391-8033-9 / 0739180339
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-8033-4 / 9780739180334