Floating free from physics: the metaphysics of quantum mechanics

TL;DR

The paper argues that metaphysics of science, especially in quantum mechanics, is an autonomous discipline that cannot be justified solely by scientific theories, leading to multiple metaphysical interpretations of physical entities.

Contribution

It clarifies the methodological independence of metaphysics from physics in the context of quantum mechanics and critiques the pursuit of a single metaphysical interpretation.

Findings

Metaphysics of science is an autonomous discipline.

Multiple metaphysical profiles can be attributed to physical entities.

Metaphysical underdetermination is inherent from the start.

Abstract

We discuss some methodological aspects of the relation between physics and metaphysics by dealing specifically with the case of non-relativistic quantum mechanics. Our main claim is that current attempts to productively integrate quantum mechanics and metaphysics are best seen as approaches of what should be called `the metaphysics of science', which is developed by applying already existing metaphysical concepts to scientific theories. We argue that, in this perspective, metaphysics must be understood as an autonomous discipline. It results that this metaphysics cannot hope to derive any kind of justification from science. Thus, one of the main motivations of such project, which is the obtaining of a scientifically respectable justification for the attribution of a single true metaphysical profile to the posits of a scientific theory, is doomed because of the emergence of metaphysical underdetermination from the outset. If metaphysics floats free from physics, which is a premise of such project of integration between these two areas, then it is always possible to attribute more than one metaphysical profile to dress physical entities.