Is the World a Heap of Quantum Fragments?

Philosophical Studies 178:2009-2019 (2021)
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Abstract

Fragmentalism was originally introduced as a new A-theory of time. It was further refined and discussed, and different developments of the original insight have been proposed. In a celebrated paper, Jonathan Simon contends that fragmentalism delivers a new realist account of the quantum state—which he calls conservative realism—according to which: the quantum state is a complete description of a physical system, the quantum state is grounded in its terms, and the superposition terms are themselves grounded in local goings-on about the system in question. We will argue that fragmentalism, at least along the lines proposed by Simon, does not offer a new, satisfactory realistic account of the quantum state. This raises the question about whether there are some other viable forms of quantum fragmentalism.

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Author Profiles

Samuele Iaquinto
University of Eastern Piedmont

Citations of this work

Quantum indeterminacy.Claudio Calosi & Cristian Mariani - 2021 - Philosophy Compass 16 (4):e12731.
Fragmentalism We can Believe in.Giovanni Merlo - 2022 - Philosophical Quarterly 73 (1):184-205.
Fragmenting Modal Logic.Samuele Iaquinto, Ciro De Florio & Aldo Frigerio - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
Perspectival Quantum Realism.Dennis Dieks - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (4):1-20.

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References found in this work

Guide to Ground.Kit Fine - 2012 - In Fabrice Correia & Benjamin Schnieder (eds.), Metaphysical Grounding. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37--80.
Philosophy of Physics: Quantum Theory.Tim Maudlin - 2019 - Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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