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Quantum Analogies: A Reply to Maudlin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Richard Healey
Richard Healey*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona
*
†Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, P.O. Box 210027, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0027; e-mail: rhealey@u.arizona.edu.
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Abstract

Quantum mechanics predicted the Aharonov-Bohm effect and violations of Bell inequalities before either phenomenon was experimentally verified. It is now commonly taken to explain both phenomena. Maudlin has pointed out significant disanalogies between these phenomena. But he has failed to appreciate the striking analogy that emerges when one examines the structure of their quantum mechanical explanations. The fact that each may be explained quantum mechanically in terms of a locally-acting, but nonseparable process suggests that the lesson of quantum nonlocality may be that while there is no action at a distance, the world is nonseparable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 440 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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