Humean Supervenience in the Light of Contemporary Science
Vassilios Karakostas

TL;DR
This paper challenges Lewis's Humean supervenience by highlighting quantum entanglement as a non-supervenient relation, suggesting a need for a metaphysics that accepts fundamental non-supervenient relations in physics.
Contribution
It demonstrates that quantum entanglement exemplifies non-supervenient relations, undermining Humean supervenience and proposing a revised metaphysical framework for understanding physical reality.
Findings
Quantum entanglement is a non-supervenient relation.
Humean supervenience is incompatible with quantum mechanics.
A metaphysics of fundamental relations is necessary.
Abstract
It is shown that Lewis' ontological doctrine of Humean supervenience incorporates at its foundation the so-called separability principle of classical physics. In view of the systematic violation of the latter within quantum mechanics, the claim that contemporary physical science may posit non-supervenient relations beyond the spatiotemporal ones is reinforced on a foundational basis concerning constraints on the state-representation of physical systems. Depending on the mode of assignment of states to physical systems, unit state vectors versus statistical density operators, we distinguish between strongly and weakly non-Humean, non-supervenient relations. It is demonstrated that in either case the relations of quantum entanglement constitute prototypical examples of irreducible physical relations that do not supervene upon a spatiotemporal arrangement of Humean qualities, weakening,…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsQuantum Mechanics and Applications · Philosophy and History of Science · Origins and Evolution of Life
