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An Empirical Reply to Empiricism: Protective Measurement Opens The Door for Quantum Realism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Michael Dickson
Michael Dickson*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Philosophy of Science University of Cambridge
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Abstract

Quantum mechanics has sometimes been taken to be an empiricist (vs. realist) theory. I state the empiricist's argument, then outline a recently noticed type of measurement—protective measurement—that affords a good reply for the realist. This paper is a reply to scientific empiricism (about quantum mechanics), but is neither a refutation of that position, nor an argument in favor of scientific realism. Rather, my aim is to place realism and empiricism on an even score in regards to quantum theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 122 - 140
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

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Footnotes

†

Thanks to the University of Notre Dame Philosophy of Physics Reading Group for a useful discussion. Thanks to Jim Cushing for several helpful comments. Thanks to an anonymous referee for useful remarks. Thanks also to the University of Notre Dame, the Mellon Foundation, the International Center for Theoretical Physics, and S.I.S.S.A. for generous financial support of this research.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH, England.

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