Interpreting Quantum Theories: The Art of the Possible - Hardcover

Ruetsche, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019953540X ISBN 13: 9780199535408

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2011

Synopsis

Interpreting Quantum Theories Philosophers of quantum mechanics have generally addressed exceedingly simple systems. Laura Ruetsche offers a much-needed study of the interpretation of more complicated systems, and an underexplored family of physical theories, such as quantum field theory and quantum statistical mechanics, showing why they repay philosophical attention. Full description

About this title

Review

Each of these chapters by itself makes an important contribution to philosophy of physics; but amazingly, Ruetsche ties them each to the overarching argument against pristine interpretations and for a modification of traditional scientific realism. ... It is a book that repays close study and which should be discussed extensively by philosophers in the years to come. (Hans Halvorson, Metascience)

All in all, the book is a remarkable achievement: at one and the same time a cohesive account of a major body of work by the author and others, an accessible and philosophically sensitive introduction to the field, a powerful defence of a largely novel position in philosophy of science through careful attention to scientific details, and an impressive advertisement for the value of that strategy in philosophy of science that places a high premium on mathematical rigour, without losing focus on the philosophical issues at hand. It is not the only strategy available but, in Reutsches hands at least, it is remarkably effective. (David Wallace, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science)

Ruetsche's book is set apart from many of the recent books of the philosophy of physics, not only in its engagement with the quantum theory of infinite systems (including quantum field theory), but also in its explicit engagement with questions from general philosophy of science ... It is a book that repays close study and which should be discussed extensively by philosophers in the years to come. (Hans Halvorson, Metascience)

About the Author

As an undergraduate at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, Laura Ruetsche studied physics, philosophy, and classical Greek. A Rhodes Scholarship took her to Oxford, where she wrote a B.Phil. thesis on Plato's Timaeus under the direction of John Ackrill. Shifting her focus to philosophy of physics, she completed her graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh, earning her PhD in 1995 and joining the faculty in 1996. In 2008, she moved to the University of Michigan, where she is now Professor of Philosophy.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 019953540X
• ISBN 13: 9780199535408
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 398