Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Is quantum mechanics an atomistic theory?

  • Published:
Synthese Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

If quantum mechanics (QM) is to be taken as an atomistic theory with the elementary particles as atoms (an ATEP), then the elementary particlcs must be individuals. There must then be, for each elementary particle a, a property “being identical with a” that a alone has. But according to QM, elementary particles of the same kind share all physical properties. Thus, if QM is an ATEP, identity is a metaphysical but not a physical property. That has unpalatable consequences. Dropping the assumption that QM is an ATEP makes it possible to replace the assumption that elementary particles are individuals with the assumption that there are various kinds of elementary ‘stuff’ that have smallest quantities — the smallest quantity of light, for example, is a photon. The problems about identity disappear, and the explanatory virtues of an ATEP are maintained.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Dirac, P. A. M.: 1967, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 4th edn. (revised), Oxford University Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feynman, Richard P.: 1985, QED, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, Steven and Michael Redhead: 1988, ‘Quantum Physics and the Identity of Indiscernibles’, British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 39, 233–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginsberg, Allen: 1984, ‘On a Paradox in Quantum Mechanics’, Synthese 61, 325–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quine, Willard Van Orman: 1960, Word and Object, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quine, Willard Van Orman: 1969, ‘Speaking of Objects’, in Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quine, Willard Van Orman: 1987, Quiddities: an Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teller, Paul: 1983, ‘Discussion: Quantum Physics, the Identity of Indiscernibles and some Unanswered Questions’, Philosophy of Science 50, 309–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Fraassen, Bas C.: 1972, ‘Probabilities and the Problem of Individuation’, in Sidney A. Luckenbach (ed.), Probabilities, Problems and Paradoxes, Dickenson, Encino CA, chap. 6, pp. 121–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, Alfred North, and Bertrand Russell: 1957, Principia Mathematica, 2d edn., Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Philosophy, Columbia University, 721 Philosophy Hall, 10027, New York, NY, U.S.A.

    Shaughan Lavine

Authors
  1. Shaughan Lavine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

I would like to thank various referees for their comments, as well as David Albert, Gerald Feinberg, Isaac Levi, James Lewis, Andre Mirabelli, Sidney Morgenbesser, Sarah Stebbins, Chris Swoyer, and Steve Yablo for useful discussions, and Arthur Fine for his comments on a presentation at Stanford University of a preliminary version of this paper in 1986.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lavine, S. Is quantum mechanics an atomistic theory?. Synthese 89, 253–271 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413907

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413907

Keywords

Search

Navigation