Abstract

I argue in the dissertation that there exists a fundamental contradiction between quantum theory and the special theory of relativity and that most of the well-known arguments to the contrary suffer from internal inconsistencies that render them ineffective in resolving the conflict. After an examination of these proposed solutions, I conclude that only four of them actually succeed without degenerating into logical inconsistency. These are: the acceptance of an inherent nonseparability within nonfactorizable systems; the requirement that all physical description exist only with respect to a particular spacetime hyperplane; the allowance of a symmetric understanding of causality in which effects may sometimes temporally precede their causes; or the negation of a realist interpretation of relativity in which all statements in one frame of reference may be Lorentz transformable into equivalent statements in all other frames of reference. In conclusion, I argue that the first three of these options, but not the fourth, succomb to a global inconsistency with respect to their relationship within science, leaving only the "Lorentzian interpretation" as a viable option at this time