Egg, Matthias (20 May 2016). 3 or 3N Dimensions? Underdetermination about the Fundamental Space of Quantum Mechanics (Unpublished). In: Underdetermination and Quantum Physics. Leeds. 20.-21. 05. 2016.
The question concerning the dimensionality of our fundamental physical space is arguably one of the most profound cases of underdetermination in non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Those who take the wave function to represent fundamental reality think that the world fundamentally has 3N dimensions, where N is the total number of particles. Against this, various versions of quantum mechanics postulate certain entities in 3-dimensional space as fundamental. An important argument for the latter view suggests that this is not strictly a case of underdetermination of theory by evidence, because a view that does not include some entities in 3-dimensional space fails to explain how there can be empirical evidence for quantum mechanics in the first place. A critical assessment of this argument will clarify how the debate on dimensionality depends on the evaluation of non-empirical virtues which is well-known from other debates on underdetermination.
Item Type: |
Conference or Workshop Item (Speech) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Philosophy 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Philosophy > Theoretical Philosophy |
UniBE Contributor: |
Egg, Matthias |
Subjects: |
100 Philosophy 100 Philosophy > 110 Metaphysics 100 Philosophy > 120 Epistemology |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Matthias Peter Egg |
Date Deposited: |
14 Jun 2017 11:48 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 15:04 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/98112 |
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