How to interpret quantum mechanics

Erkenntnis 41 (2):253 - 273 (1994)
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Abstract

I formulate the interpretation problem of quantum mechanics as the problem of identifying all possible maximal sublattices of quantum propositions that can be taken as simultaneously determinate, subject to certain constraints that allow the representation of quantum probabilities as measures over truth possibilities in the standard sense, and the representation of measurements in terms of the linear dynamics of the theory. The solution to this problem yields a modal interpretation that I show to be a generalized version of Bohm's hidden variable theory. I argue that unless we alter the dynamics of quantum mechanics, or accept a for all practical purposes solution, this generalized Bohmian mechanics is the unique solution to the problem of interpretation.

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Jeffrey Bub
University of Maryland, College Park

Citations of this work

Modal interpretations, decoherence and measurements.Guido Bacciagaluppi & Meir Hemmo - 1996 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (3):239-277.
Modal interpretations, decoherence and measurements.Guido Bacciagaluppi & Meir Hemmo - 1996 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 27 (3):239-277.
Possible worlds in the modal interpretation.Meir Hemmo - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (3):337.
Possible Worlds in the Modal Interpretation.Meir Hemmo - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (5):S330-S337.

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