Objective probability and the mind-body relation

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2017.01.007MaRDI QIDQ515367zbMATHOpenAlexFDO

Authors Paul Tappenden

Publication date 13 March 2017

Published in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.02140

zbMATH Keywords

measurement problemEverettEverett-Wheelermind-brain identitytwin Earth

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Axioms; other general questions in probability (60A05)

Abstract: Objective probability in quantum mechanics is often thought to involve a stochastic process whereby an actual future is selected from a range of possibilities. Everett's seminal idea is that all possible definite futures on the pointer basis exist as components of a macroscopic linear superposition. I demonstrate that these two conceptions of what is involved in quantum processes are linked by two alternative interpretation of the mind-body relation. This leads to a fission, rather than divergence, interpretation of Everettian theory and to a novel explanation of why a principle of indifference does not apply to self-location uncertainty for a post-measurement, pre-observation subject, just as Sebens and Carroll claim. Their Epistemic Separability Principle is shown to arise out of this explanation and the derivation of the Born rule for Everettian theory is thereby put on a firmer footing.

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• Does it make sense to speak of self-locating uncertainty in the universal wave function? Remarks on Sebens and Carroll
• Objective probability in Everettian quantum mechanics
• On schizophrenic experiences of the neutron or why we should believe in the many‐worlds interpretation of quantum theory
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• The measure of existence of a quantum world and the Sleeping Beauty Problem

Cited in

(8)

• Uncertainty and probability for branching selves
• Derivations of the Born Rule
• Does it make sense to speak of self-locating uncertainty in the universal wave function? Remarks on Sebens and Carroll
• Is quantum suicide painless? On an apparent violation of the Principal Principle
• Belief update across fission
• In defence of the self-location uncertainty account of probability in the many-worlds interpretation
• Objective probability in Everettian quantum mechanics
• Pilot-Wave theory without nonlocality

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