On von Weizs\"{a}cker's philosophy of Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper explores von Weizs"{a}cker's epistemological approach to reconstructing quantum mechanics, emphasizing its Kantian roots and the development of a quantum logic based on fundamental alternatives, culminating in a quantum information perspective.

Contribution

It clarifies von Weizs"{a}cker's philosophical framework, linking Kantian ideas with quantum logic and showing how this leads to a quantum theory of information.

Findings

Situates von Weizs"{a}cker's theory within Kantian transcendental idealism.

Shows the substitution of classical logic with quantum logic in the theory.

Connects fundamental alternatives to the emergence of physical reality and quantum information.

Abstract

We are interested here in the program of reconstruction of quantum mechanics of the German physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizs\"{a}cker, which still has some supporters today. In the major part of this article, we limit ourselves to examining purely epistemological and philosophical questions. The theory of the German physicist is often interpreted with reference to Kant, but the most of the time in a rather vague way (categories of understanding, theory of experience). We can afford to be more precise. First we situate the theory of fundamental alternatives (or Ur-alternatives) of von Weizs\"{a}cker in the lineage of the Kantian theory of the transcendental Ideal. We then show that the physicist only substitutes for the classical logic, on which Kant relied, a quantum logic allowing to generate, from the alternatives, via the local isomorphism between certain spinor groups and groups linked to space-time, the whole of physical reality to which we have access. After examining some problems, we finally show how this perspective leads to a quantum theory of information.