Related papers: The physics and metaphysics of primitive stuff
We consider the problem of quantum behavior in the finite background. Introduction of continuum or other infinities into physics leads only to technical complications without any need for them in description of empirical observations. The…
I argue that quantum mechanics is fundamentally a theory about the representation and manipulation of information, not a theory about the mechanics of nonclassical waves or particles. The notion of quantum information is to be understood as…
Darwinism conceives evolution as a consequence of random variation and natural selection, hence it is based on a materialistic, i.e. matter-based, view of science inspired by classical physics. But matter in itself is considered a very…
Based on a number of experimentally verified physical observations, it is argued that the standard principles of quantum mechanics should be applied to the Universe as a whole. Thus, a paradigm is proposed in which the entire Universe is…
Different approaches are compared to formulation of quantum mechanics of a particle on the curved spaces. At first, the canonical, quasi-classical and path integration formalisms are considered for quantization of geodesic motion on the…
Despite its apparent complexity, our world seems to be governed by simple laws of physics. This volume provides a philosophical introduction to such laws. I explain how they are connected to some of the central issues in philosophy, such as…
We attempt to contribute some novel points of view to the "foundations of quantum mechanics", using mathematical tools from "quantum probability theory" (such as the theory of operator algebras). We first introduce an abstract algebraic…
In contrast to the Copenhagen interpretation we consider quantum mechanics as universally valid and query whether classical physics is really intuitive and plausible. - We discuss these problems within the quantum logic approach to quantum…
Starting from a simple classical framework and employing some stochastic concepts, the basic ingredients of the quantum formalism are recovered. It has been shown that the traditional axiomatic structure of quantum mechanics can be rebuilt,…
In physical theories, boundary or initial conditions play the role of selecting special situations which can be described by a theory with its general laws. Cosmology has long been suspected to be different in that its fundamental theory…
We start from classical general relativity coupled to matter fields. Each configuration variable and its conjugate momentum, as also space-time points, are raised to the status of matrices [equivalently operators]. These matrices obey a…
Energy is no doubt an intuitive concept. Following a previous analysis on the nature of elementary particles and associated elementary quantum fields, the peculiar status and role of energy is scrutinised further at elementary and larger…
A characteristical property of a classical physical theory is that the observables are real functions taking an exact outcome on every (pure) state; in a quantum theory, at the contrary, a given observable on a given state can take several…
In resisting attempts to explain the unity of a whole in terms of a multiplicity of interacting parts, quantum mechanics calls for an explanatory concept that proceeds in the opposite direction: from unity to multiplicity. It concerns the…
A tradition handed down among physicists maintains that classical physics is a perfectly deterministic theory capable of predicting the future with absolute certainty, independently of any interpretations. It also tells that it was quantum…
The paper retraces the development from the measurement problem to the primitive ontology programme. It assesses the contribution of the GRW theory to this programme and discusses the pros and cons of the GRWm matter density ontology and…
The transition from quantum to classical behavior is a central question in modern physics. How can we rationalize everyday classical observations from an inherently quantum world? For instance, what makes two people, each absorbing an…
The implications of the physical theory of quantum mechanics on the question of realism is much a subject of sustaining interest, while the background questions among physicists on how to think about all the theoretical notion and…
It is argued that the world is a dissipative dynamic system, a phase flow of which is formed by conformally-symplectic mapping. The key assumption is that the concept of energy in microcosm makes sense only for the steady motions…
Quantum dynamics can be regarded as a generalization of classical finite-state dynamics. This is a familiar viewpoint for workers in quantum computation, which encompasses classical computation as a special case. Here this viewpoint is…