论文标题
量子力学中的现实主义和形而上学
Realism and metaphysics in quantum mechanics
论文作者
论文摘要
根据科学现实主义,科学使我们对世界的样子进行了大致描述。但是这是什么意思?在本章中,我们关注讨论的本体论和形而上学方面。也就是说,我们关心以下问题:根据我们最好的科学理论,有什么?这些理论说的话如何存在?我们从假设真正的科学现实主义必须处理这些问题的假设开始。以非忠实的量子力学为案例研究,我们讨论了真正现实的立场当前面临的一些挑战。我们首先认为,在本体论方面,现实主义者与科学相同,也就是说,没有足够的认知理由可以采用单一量子理论对实体的信念,鉴于这种经验(当前)无法在竞争理论之间做出决定。在形而上学的方面,鉴于将多个形而上学理论与每个量子理论所假定的实体相关联的可能性,现实主义者也遇到了理论选择的问题。结构主义替代方案也是如此,因为即使我们接受科学理论是为了存在结构,但不是对象,我们仍然不知道什么是结构。最后,我们在与Meta-Popperian方法的讨论中前进,该方法减少了与科学理论本体论假设相关的形而上学替代方法。我们可能不知道正确的选择是什么,但是我们已经能够逐步检查哪种形而上学的替代方案与每个科学理论不相容。
According to scientific realism, science gives us an approximately true description of what the world is like. But what does it mean? In this chapter, we focus on the ontological and metaphysical aspects of this discussion. That is, we are concerned with the following questions: what there is, according to our best scientific theories? And how are these things that theories say exist? We start from the assumption that a genuine scientific realism must deal with these issues. Taking non-relativistic quantum mechanics as a case study, we discuss some of the challenges currently faced by a genuinely realistic stance. We argue, first, that in the ontological aspect, realists are in the same boat as science, that is, without sufficient epistemic justification to adopt the belief in the entities postulated by a single quantum theory, given that experience (currently) is not able to decide between rival theories; in the metaphysical aspect, realists also encounter problems with theory choice, given the possibility of associating more than one metaphysical theory with the description of the entities postulated by each quantum theory. The same goes for structuralist alternatives, since, even if we accept that scientific theories are committed to the existence of structures, but not objects, we still do not know what structures are, metaphysically. Finally, we move forward in the discussion with the meta-Popperian method, which serves to reduce the metaphysical alternatives associated with the ontological postulates of scientific theories. We may not know what the correct alternative is, but we have been able to progressively check which metaphysical alternatives are incompatible with each scientific theory.