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On Becoming, Relativity, and Nonseparability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Mauro Dorato*
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy, University of Padua, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

In a reply to Nicholas Maxwell, Stein has proved that Minkowski spacetime can leave room for the kind of indeterminateness required both by certain interpretations of quantum mechanics and by objective becoming. By examining the consequences of outcome dependence in Bell-type experiments for the co-determinateness of spacelike-related events, I argue that the only becoming relation that is compatible with both causal and noncausal readings of the quantum correlations is the universal relation. This result might also undermine interpretations of quantum mechanics requiring non-epistemically indeterminate states before measurement and hyperplane-dependent wave collapse.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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Footnotes

I am truly indebted to the comments of the anonymous referee concerning two earlier versions of this paper. The final version was completed at the Center for Philosophy of Science of the University of Pittsburgh. Besides the members of the Center and of the Philosophy Department, I thank D. Malament, M. Pauri, and H. Stein for helpful discussions.

Send reprint requests to the author, Via Biferno 4, 00199 Rome, Italy; e-mail, Dorato@itcaspur.caspur.it

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