Laws of Nature and the Reality of the Wave Function

TL;DR

This paper reviews three philosophical positions on the wave function, analyzing their implications for the ontology of quantum mechanics and arguing that eliminating abstract entities leads to instrumentalism.

Contribution

It critically examines three main interpretations of the wave function, clarifying their ontological commitments and implications for understanding quantum reality.

Findings

Nomological realism and dispositionalism treat the wave function as an abstract entity.

Configuration space realism is a speculative attempt to derive ontology from mathematical space.

Eliminating abstract entities from the ontology supports an instrumentalist view of the wave function.

Abstract

In this paper I review three different positions on the wave function, namely: nomological realism, dispositionalism, and configuration space realism by regarding as essential their capacity to account for the world of our experience. I conclude that the first two positions are committed to regard the wave function as an abstract entity. The third position will be shown to be a merely speculative attempt to derive a primitive ontology from a reified mathematical space. Without entering any discussion about nominalism, I conclude that an elimination of abstract entities from one's ontology commits one to instrumentalism about the wave function, a position that therefore is not as unmotivated as it has seemed to be to many philosophers.