Abstract
As part of the ‘creation-discovery’ interpretation of quantum mechanics Diederik Aerts presented a setting with macroscopical coincidence experiments designed to exhibit significant conceptual analogies between portions of stuff and quantum compound entities in a singlet state in Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen/Bell-experiments (EPR-experiments). One important claim of the creation-discovery view is that the singlet state describes an entity that does not have a definite position in space and thus ‘does not exist in space’. ‘Free Process Theory’ is a recent proposal by Johanna Seibt of an integrated ontology, i.e., of an ontology suitable for the interpretation of theories of the macrophysical and microphysical domain (quantum field theory). The framework of free process theory allows us to show systematically the relevant analogies and disanalogies between Aerts’ experiment and EPR-experiments. From free process ontology it also follows quite naturally that the quantum compound entity described by the singlet state ‘does not exist in space.’
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aerts, D.: 1981, The One and the Many. Towards the Unification of the Quantum and the Classical Description of One and Many Physical Entities, Brussels: Free University of Brussels (VUB) doctoral dissertation.
Aerts, D.: 1982, ‘Example of a Macroscopical Situation that Violates Bell Inequalities’, Lett. Nuovo Cimento 34, 107–111.
Aerts, D.: 1983a, ‘Classical Theories and Non Classical Theories as a Special Case of a More General Theory’, Journal of Mathematical Physics 24, 2441–2453.
Aerts, D.: 1983b, ‘The Description of One and Many Physical Systems’, in C. Gruber (ed.), Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Lausanne: A.V.C.P., Geneva.
Aerts, D.: 1990, ‘An Attempt to Imagine Parts of the Micro-World’, in J. Mizerski, A. Posievnik, J. Pykacz, and M. Zukowski (eds.), Problems in Quantum Physics II, World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 3–25.
Boyd, Richard, Philip Gasper and J.D. Trout (eds.): 1991, The Philosophy of Science, A Bradford Book, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Cao, T. Y. (ed.): 1999, Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Field Theory, Cambridge University Press.
Christiaens, W.: 2002, ‘Some Notes on Aerts’ Interpretation of the EPR-paradox and the Violation of Bell-inequalities’, in D. Aerts, M. Czachor and T. Durt, Probing the Structure of Quantum Mechanics: Nonlinerity, Computation and Axiomatics, Singapore: World Scientific.
De Broglie, L.: 1956, Nouvelles Perspectives en Microphysique, Paris: Editions Albin Michel.
Herbert, F: 1985, Quantum Reality. Beyond the New Physics, New York: Doubleday, Anchor Books.
Kuhlmann, M., H. Lyre and A. Wayne (eds.): 2002, Ontological Aspects of Quantum Field Theory, Singapore: World Scientific.
Mermin, N. D.: 1985, ‘Is the Moon There When Nobody Looks? Reality and the Quantum Theory’, Physics Today, pp. 38–47. Reprinted in: Richard Boyd, Philip Gasper and J. D. Trout (eds.), 1991, The Philosophy of Science, A Bradford Book, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press
Redhead, M.: 1987, Incompleteness, Nonlocality and Realism. A Prolegomenon to the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Redhead, M.: 1989, ‘The Lakatos Award Lecture: The Nature of Reality’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40, 429–441.
Seibt, J.: 1990, Towards Process Ontology: A Critical Study in Substance-Ontological Premises, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan: UMI-Dissertation Publication.
Seibt, J.: 1995, ‘Individuen als Prozesse: Zur prozess-ontologischen Revision des Substanzparadigmas’, Logos 5, 303–343.
Seibt, J.: 1996a, ‘Non-countable Individuals: Why One and the Same Is Not One and the Same’, Southwest Philosophy Review 12, 225–237.
Seibt, J.: 1996b, ‘Existence in Time: From Substance to Process’, in J. Faye, U. Scheffler, M. Urs, Perspectives on Time, Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 143–182.
Seibt, J.: 2000, ‘The Dynamic Constitution of Things’, in J. Faye et al. (eds.): Facts and Events. Poznañ Studies in Philosophy of Science 72, 241–278.
Seibt, J.: 2001a, ‘Formal Process Ontology’, in C. Welty. and B. Smith (eds.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Collected papers from the second international conference, ACM Press, Ogunquit, pp. 333–345. (http://www.hum.au.dk/filosofi/filseibt).
Seibt, J.: 2001b, ‘Processes in the Manifest and Scientific Image’, in U. Meixner (ed.), Metaphysic im postmetaphysischen Zeitalter/Metaphysics in the Post-Metaphysical Age, Wien: “bv&hpt, pp. 218–230.
Seibt, J.: 2002, ‘Quanta, Tropes, or Processes: On Ontologies for QFT beyond the Myth of Substance’, in Kuhlmann et al. 2002, pp. 53–93.
Seibt, J.: forthcoming, Free Process Theory. A Study in Revisionary Ontology, Habilita-tionsthesis to be submitted at the University of Konstanz.
Teller, P.: 1995, An Interpretative Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Christiaens, W. (2003). The EPR-Experiment and Free Process Theory. In: Seibt, J. (eds) Process Theories. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1044-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1044-3_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-1751-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1044-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive