Quantum contextuality as a topological property, and the ontology of potentiality

Philosophical Problems in Science 69:145-189 (2020)
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Abstract

Quantum contextuality and its ontological meaning are very controversial issues, and they relate to other problems concerning the foundations of quantum theory. I address this controversy and stress the fact that contextuality is a universal topological property of quantum processes, which conflicts with the basic metaphysical assumption of the definiteness of being. I discuss the consequences of this fact and argue that generic quantum potentiality as a real physical indefiniteness has nothing in common with the classical notions of possibility and counterfactuality, and that also it reverses, in a way, the classical mirror-like relation between actuality and definite possibility.

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References found in this work

On the Plurality of Worlds.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
The Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics.Simon Kochen & E. P. Specker - 1967 - Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics 17:59--87.
A Theory of Metaphysical Indeterminacy.Elizabeth Barnes & J. Robert G. Williams - 2011 - In Karen Bennett & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Volume 6. Oxford University Press UK. pp. 103-148.

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