Abstract
This paper develops an approach to the interpretation of quantum mechanics inspired by the philosophy of Howard Stein. Taking up Stein’s (1994) call to schematize the observer and the observation, I introduce a class of observables called ‘sensibles’ which provide a means to assign probabilities to an observer's experiences of experimental phenomena. In particular, sensibles provide an assignment of probabilities to an event space that, while satisfying the demands of probability theory, also allows for an interpretation of these events as occurring at definite space-time regions. On this understanding, the experimental events to which probabilities are ascribed are conditional occurrences—types of events which occur at a definite location in a specific experimental context. This proposal differs from dynamical collapse theories such as GRWf since these sensibles are genuine quantum observables arising from the unitary dynamics of the theory. I conclude with some remarks on the import of Stein's philosophy for the measurement problem.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have