Representational Realism, Closed Theories and the Quantum to Classical Limit

TL;DR

This paper advocates for a pluralist ontic approach to quantum theories, criticizing orthodox views and emphasizing the importance of conceptual representations, especially in understanding the quantum to classical transition beyond decoherence.

Contribution

It introduces a representational realist perspective that challenges orthodox assumptions and highlights new conceptual problems like superposition and contextuality in quantum theory.

Findings

Orthodox quantum interpretations are limited by metaphysical dogmas.

The superposition and contextuality problems are central to understanding quantum representations.

Decoherence alone cannot fully explain the quantum to classical transition.

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the representational realist stance as a pluralist ontic approach to inter-theoretic relationships. Our stance stresses the fact that physical theories require the necessary consideration of a conceptual level of discourse which determines and configures the specific field of phenomena discussed by each particular theory. We will criticize the orthodox line of research which has grounded the analysis about QM in two (Bohrian) metaphysical presuppositions -accepted in the present as dogmas that all interpretations must follow. We will also examine how the orthodox project of "bridging the gap" between the quantum and the classical domains has constrained the possibilities of research, producing only a limited set of interpretational problems which only focus in the justification of "classical reality" and exclude the possibility of analyzing the possibilities of non-classical conceptual representations of QM. The representational realist stance introduces two new problems, namely, the superposition problem and the contextuality problem, which consider explicitly the conceptual representation of orthodox QM beyond the mere reference to mathematical structures and measurement outcomes. In the final part of the paper, we revisit, from a representational realist perspective, the quantum to classical limit and the orthodox claim that this inter-theoretic relation can be explained through the principle of decoherence.