Related papers: On the Work of Henry P. Stapp
Several errors in Stapp's interpretation of quantum mechanics and its application to mental causation (Henry P. Stapp, "Quantum theory and the role of mind in nature," e-Print quant-ph/0103043) are pointed out. An interpretation of…
Henry Stapp has for 60 years been a leader, perhaps the leader, in exploring the role of mind (psyche, consciousness, experience) in the ontology of quantum mechanics. Henry's contention is that the very structure of quantum mechanics…
Henry Stapp has made many significant contributions in quantum physics and its use in trying to understand the mind-matter relationship. I have been influenced by his use of the notion of {\em process} to bring more clarity to understand…
This paper is a response to some recent discussions of many-minds interpretations in the philosophical literature. After an introduction to the many-minds idea, the complexity of quantum states for macroscopic objects is stressed. Then it…
There has been considerable discussion of the claim by Stapp [Am. J. Phys. 65, 300 (1997)] that quantum theory is incompatible with locality. In this note I analyze the meaning of some of the statements used in this discussion.
Since its inception, many physicists have seen in quantum mechanics the possibility, if not the necessity, of bringing cognitive aspects into the play, which were instead absent, or unnoticed, in the previous classical theories. In this…
In this paper I discuss Stapp's (2014) interesting proposal of using the Quantum Zeno Effect to account for the mind/matter interaction. In particular, I discuss some of the motivations for it, and then argue that, in his current version,…
In a series of papers, a many-minds interpretation of quantum theory has been developed. The aim in these papers is to present an explicit mathematical formalism which constitutes a complete theory compatible with relativistic quantum field…
Stapp and others have proposed that reality involves a fundamental life process, or creative process. It is shown how this process description may be unified with the description that derives from quantum physics. The methods of the quantum…
It has been suggested, on the one hand, that quantum states are just states of knowledge; and, on the other, that quantum theory is merely a theory of correlations. These suggestions are confronted with problems about the nature of…
This entry reviews Rudolf Carnap's philosophical views on the quantum mechanics of his time. It also offers some thoughts on how Carnap might have reacted to some recent developments in the foundations of quantum mechanics.
Norbert Wiener and J.B.S. Haldane suggested during the early thirties that the profound changes in our conception of matter entailed by quantum theory opens the way for our thoughts, and other experiential or mind-like qualities, to play a…
We still lack any consensus about what one is actually talking about as one uses quantum mechanics. There is a gap between the abstract terms in which the theory is couched and the phenomena the theory enables each of us to account for so…
I wish to discuss a large, interwoven set of topics pointed at in the title above. Much of what I say is highly speculative, some is testable, some is, at present, surely not. It is, I hope, useful, to set these ideas forth for our…
Stapp has recently argued from a version of the Hardy type experiments that quantum mechanics must be non-local, independent of any additional assumptions like realism or hidden variables. I argue that either his conclusions do not follow…
Since its inception, quantum theory has been the subject of fierce interpretive controversy, which persists to this day. Disputed topics include the basic ontology and dynamics of the theory, the role (if any) of measurement, the meaning of…
Recent discussions by Mermin [1] and Stapp [2] in this journal on non-locality and counterfactuality are shown to contain linguistic problems that require verification. As such they can at most provide us with two subjective choices for the…
Aspects of a quantum mechanical theory of a world containing efficacious mental aspects that are closely tied to brains, but that are not identical to brains.
Physics is so successful today in understanding the nature of matter. What can it say about mind ? Is it possible to have a unified theory of matter and mind within the framework of modern science ? Is Consciousness an accident or is it a…
It is argued that the problem of interpreting quantum mechanics, and the philosophical problem of consciousness, both have their roots in the same set of misguided Cartesian assumptions. The confusions underlying those assumptions are…