Quantum Mechanics and Perspectivalism

TL;DR

This paper advocates for a perspectival interpretation of quantum mechanics, suggesting that properties of quantum systems depend on their relations to other systems, which helps address issues with collapse theories and relativity.

Contribution

It introduces a perspectival framework for quantum objects, challenging traditional monadic property views and resolving conflicts in single-world and relativistic interpretations.

Findings

Perspectivalism explains quantum properties as relational rather than intrinsic.

It avoids the need for wave function collapse in explaining interference.

The approach addresses conflicts in relativistic quantum theories.

Abstract

Experimental evidene of the last decades has made the status of "collapses of the wave function" even more shaky than it already was on conceptual grounds: interference effects turn out to be detectable even when collapses are typically expected to occur. Non-collapse interpretations should consequently be taken seriously. In this paper we argue that such interpretations suggest a perspectivalism according to which quantum objects are not characterized by monadic properties, but by relations to other systems. Accordingly, physical systems may possess different properties with respect to different "reference systems". We discuss some of the relevant arguments, and argue that perspectivalism both evades recent arguments that single-world interpretations are inconsistent and eliminates the need for a privileged rest frame in the relativistic case.