Related papers: Nomic realism, simplicity, and the simplicity bubb…
Physical laws are strikingly simple, yet there is no a priori reason for them to be so. I propose that nomic realists -- Humeans and non-Humeans -- should recognize simplicity as a fundamental epistemic guide for discovering and evaluating…
A system's apparent simplicity depends on whether it is represented classically or quantally. This is not so surprising, as classical and quantum physics are descriptive frameworks built on different assumptions that capture, emphasize, and…
A simple minimalist argument is given for why some correlations between quantum systems boggle our classical intuition. The argument relies on two elementary physical assumptions, and recovers the standard experimentally-testable Bell…
This paper explores the options available to the anti-realist to defend a Quinean empirical under-determination thesis using examples of dualities. I first explicate a version of the empirical under-determination thesis that can be brought…
It is argued that there is no evidence for causality as a metaphysical relation in quantum phenomena. The assumption that there are no causal laws, but only probabilities for physical processes constrained by symmetries, leads naturally to…
Clarifying the nature of the quantum state $|\Psi\rangle$ is at the root of the problems with insight into counter-intuitive quantum postulates. We provide a direct-and math-axiom free-empirical derivation of this object as an element of a…
We argue about a conceptual approach to quantum formalism. Starting from philosophical conjectures (Platonism, Idealism and Realism) as basic ontic elements (namely: math world, data world, and state of matter), we will analyze the quantum…
The superposition principle is a very basic ingredient of quantum theory. What may come as a surprise to many students, and even to many practitioners of the quantum craft, is tha superposition has limitations imposed by certain…
It is often argued that bottom-up causation under a physicalist, reductionist worldview precludes free will in the libertarian sense. On the one hand, the paradigm of classical mechanics makes determinism inescapable, while on the other,…
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…
We define realism using a slightly modified version of the EPR criterion of reality. This version is strong enough to show that relativity is incomplete. We show that this definition of realism is nonetheless compatible with the general…
A long-standing tradition, largely present in both the physical and the philosophical literature, regards the advent of (special) relativity -- with its block-universe picture -- as the failure of any indeterministic program in physics. On…
The question whether quantum measurements reflect some underlying objective reality has no generally accepted answer. We show that description of such reality is possible under natural conditions such as linearity and causality, although in…
If there are fundamental laws of nature, can they fail to be exact? In this paper, I consider the possibility that some fundamental laws are vague. I call this phenomenon 'fundamental nomic vagueness.' I characterize fundamental nomic…
The concept of realism in quantum mechanics means that results of measurement are caused by physical variables, hidden or observable. Local hidden variables were proved unable to explain results of measurements on entangled particles tested…
It is argued that quantum mechanics follows naturally from the assumptions that there are no fundamental causal laws but only probabilities for physical processes that are constrained by symmetries, and reality is relational in the sense…
Study on pre- and postselected quantum system indicates that ``product rule'' and ``sum rule'' for elements of reality should be abandoned. We show that this so-called non-partial realism can refute arguments against hidden variables in a…
We show that EPR's criterion of reality leads to contradictions in quantum mechanics. When locality is assumed, an inequality involving only one particle is violated, while when parameter and outcome dependence are assumed, EPR-realism is…
We propose an interpretation of physics named potentiality realism. This view, which can be applied to classical as well as to quantum physics, regards potentialities (i.e. intrinsic, objective propensities for individual events to obtain)…
A physical explanation for quantum bounds to nonlocality (Tsirelson's bound) is a fundamental problem that remains open, and one approach to explaining its origins is the so-called Exclusivity principle, relying on probabilistic assumptions…