A Philosopher's Understanding of Quantum Mechanics (Q4953976)

This book is not about modal logic or about a wide class of interpretations of quantum theory. Instead the focus is ``specifically on the version of the modal interpretation proposed by Kochen (1985), and Dieks (1988) as well as on two generalisations of this version'', \textit{P. E. Vermaas} and \textit{D. Dieks} [Found. Phys. 25, 145-158 (1995)] and Bacciagaluppi and Dickson (1997) and Dieks (1998). The stated purpose of this book is to ``develop these three interpretations to full descriptions of reality to determine whether these three modal interpretations are able to give empirically adequate descriptions of measurements and to consider the question of whether they can be taken as metaphysically tenable interpretations of quantum mechanics'' (p 6). The book starts with a general discussion in chapter 1, including an analogy between a land ``patchwise accurately described by little maps'' and quantum reality. Chapter 2 is a concise but detailed exposition of the Hilbert space formalism of standard quantum mechanics. Chapter 3 introduces the ``modal interpretations'' noted above that are the subject of this discussion. Following the introductory chapters comes Part One (``Formalism'', chapters 4-9) a very technical discussion and development of the formalism of these interpretations. Basic is the notion of a core property ascription, a mapping from a state to ``core projections'' in Hilbert Space. And derived from this is a full property ascription, a triple \(\langle p_j, {\mathcal D}{\mathcal P}_j,[.]_j \rangle\), \(p_j\) a probability function, \({\mathcal D}{\mathcal P}_j\) the set of projections ``with definite values'' and \([.]_j\) mappings from \({\mathcal D}{\mathcal P}_j\) to \(\{0,1\}\). This induces assignment of values to magnitudes, and in this sense represents observer-independent descriptions of reality. Various results are derived and discussed in these chapters, including no-go results for correllated systems. Part Two (``Physics'', chapters 10 and 11) considers first ``The measurement problem'' then ``The Born rule'', arguing first that all ``physically realistic'' measurements are accounted for by this analysis (p. 176f), and secondly that ``these modal interpretations concur with Born probabilities'' (p. 195f). In Part Three (``Philosophy'', chapters 12-15) it is argued, with some important reservations, that interpretations are ``metaphysically tenable'' and ``empirically adequate''. However the final two chapters in this part and the book, return to questions raised at the outset, delivering a verdict that is not wholly positive. For example: ``The descriptions of reality provided by [these] modal interpretations are from an epistemological point of view often intractable and elusive'' (p. 272). The author expresses ``hesitance about the modal interpretations considered in this book'' (p. 277), ultimately because of a ``slight incoherence'', the lack of a unique relation between properties of a composite system and properties of the subsystems of that composite. In the last pages of the book he concludes that inspite of being ``empirically inadequate, and ``incoherent'', ``I believe that all the work done on these interpretations will prove its worth'' (p. 278). Whether others will also agree, remains to be seen. However the strengths of this book are its clear, detailed exposition of the quantum formalism, and the way in which issues of interpretation are related back to this formalism. As a result the book is very mathematical, but it should also ensure it is useful to readers who may not share the author's optimism about the ``modal interpretations'' considered here.