The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: An Interactive Interpretation

by Richard A. Healey

Overview

This is one of the most important books on quantum mechanics to have appeared in recent years. It offers a dramatically new interpretation that resolves puzzles and paradoxes associated with the measurement problem and the behavior of coupled systems. A crucial feature of this interpretation is that a quantum mechanical measurement can be certain to have a particular outcome even when the observed system fails to have the property corresponding to that outcome just prior to the measurement interaction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521371056
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/24/1989
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.78(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; 1. Overview; 2. Dynamical states; 3. Measurement and quantum states; 4. Coupled systems; 5. Metaphysical aspects; 6. Alternatives compared; 7. Open questions; Appendix; Selected bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

The author is Professor of Philosophy at the U. of California, Davis. He provides a very well-informed and astute critical review of existing efforts to move "beyond the Copenhagen interpretation," then (in an admittedly more problematic undertaking) outlines his own attempt to resolve the perceived defects of that interpretation. It is unlikely that physicists (used to having philosophers in their wake) will respond enthusiastically to the leadership of a philosopher, unlikely that they will grant even in principle that their problem can be resolved by "mere philosophical analysis," that its solution can plausibly be found in a book which contains lots of words and nice distinctions but no equations. But the author (who has interacted mainly with his fellow philosophers) has on occasion engaged the attention of physicists active in the field, and produced a seriously intended book of considerable merit. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"In a very careful, subtle, and deeply original piece of work, Healey has...achieved something no one else has been able to do in the sixty-year history of the discussion of quantum mechanics." Howard Stein, University of Chicago

"Richard Healey's book develops a new interpretation of quantum mechanics that is perhaps the first original, systematic interpretation of the theory since Hans Riechenbach's Philosophic Foundations of Quantum Mechanics..." Isis

"...Healey has proposed a powerful and sharp, no-collapse and no-hidden variables, interpretation of quantum mechanics. Anyone keen to witness objectively these virtues must read the book." Meir Hemmo, Foundations of Physics

From the Publisher