Rules and Meaning in Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This book explores the semantics of quantum mechanics, critically analyzing rival explanations and introducing new arguments related to Einstein's incompleteness, Bohr's principle, quantum logic, and semantic indeterminacy.

Contribution

It offers novel reconstructions and reinterpretations of foundational quantum principles, advancing the metasemantics and philosophical understanding of quantum mechanics.

Findings

Reconstruction of Einstein's incompleteness argument

Reinterpretation of Bohr's principle of correspondence

Argument for semantic indeterminacy in quantum logic

Abstract

This book concerns the metasemantics of quantum mechanics (QM). Roughly, it pursues an investigation at the intersection of philosophy of physics and philosophy of language, and it offers a critical analysis of rival explanations of the semantic facts of standard QM. Two problems for such explanations are discussed: categoricity and permanence. New results include 1) a reconstruction of Einstein's incompleteness argument, which concludes that a local, separable, and categorical QM cannot exist, 2) a reinterpretation of Bohr's principle of correspondence, grounded in the principle of permanence, 3) a meaning-variance argument for quantum logic, which follows a line of critical reflections initiated by Weyl, and 4) an argument for semantic indeterminacy leveled against inferentialism about QM, inspired by Carnap's work in the philosophy of classical logic.