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Value-definiteness and Contextualism: Cut and Paste with Hilbert Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Allen Stairs
Allen Stairs*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
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Extract

My topics are two theses about quantum mechanics that are widely doubted but curiously tempting: value-definiteness and contextualism. Value-definiteness holds that every observable has a definite value; contextualism follows from value-definiteness, and claims that one Hermitian operator can represent many observables. In fact, contextualism is my deeper interest Although it is not a view with an army of defenders, it has a long history of discussion in the literature. (See, for example, Belinfante 1973, van Fraassen 1973, Shimony 1984, Redhead 1987). The bulk of this paper will be concerned with a puzzle about degenerate operators that arises out of the standard accounts of contextualism. But before we get to the details, let us begin with a lurid example.

Type
Part III. Quantum Theory I
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1992 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1992 , 1992 , pp. 91 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

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