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Review of Jeffrey A. Barrett’s The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics - Jeffrey A. Barrett, The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2020), 272 pp., $88.00.
Philosophy of Science ( IF 1.7 ) Pub Date : 2022-01-01 , DOI: 10.1017/psa.2021.51 Benjamin H. Feintzeig
Philosophy of Science ( IF 1.7 ) Pub Date : 2022-01-01 , DOI: 10.1017/psa.2021.51 Benjamin H. Feintzeig
In The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Jeffrey A. Barrett provides an excellent introductory-level text for graduate students or advanced undergraduates. Many today teach the philosophy of quantum mechanics through David Albert’s classic text Quantum Mechanics and Experience (Albert, 1992). Barrett’s book fulfills many of the same roles, and more: Barrett reports on cutting edge progress from the intervening decades with historical and contemporary references. Barrett’s book can serve either as an entry point for aspiring researchers or as a vehicle to make the foundations of quantum mechanics accessible to philosophers of all stripes. In the first part of the book (chapters 1–5), Barrett gives a concise presentation of the core of quantum theory, free of unnecessary technical details. Chapter 3 describes the mathematical background of Hilbert space, the primary tool used to describe states of quantum systems. Chapter 4 uses the mathematical tools developed to present the standard formulation of quantum theory. Barrett’s central contribution is to distill quantum theory to five digestible postulates. These postulates show how the mathematical tools are used to represent physical systems, that is, how physical states, observables, dynamical evolution, and composition are connected to the apparatus of abstract vectors and operators. In doing so, Barrett introduces a theme of the book: the very formulation of a physical theory should be understood to come with an interpretation that goes beyond mere mathematical laws, and so understood, a theory will both encode and reflect the metaphysical and explanatory commitments of its adherents. Barrett uses this to argue throughout the book that what are sometimes called different “interpretations” of quantum mechanics should be understood as distinct physical theories. By the end of chapter 5, Barrett has laid the groundwork for a reader, who started without prior familiarity with quantum physics, to be able to engage with the deep philosophical questions the theory raises. Chapters 6 and 7 drive to the heart of those questions, framing the measurement problem as the central foundational issue. Since the measurement problem challenges the adequacy of the standard formulation of quantum mechanics, Barrett begins chapter 6 with a discussion of early discontents. Barrett reviews the infamous argument of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) that the standard formulation cannot be a complete representation of physical reality. Barrett follows this line of thinking long enough to present Bell’s theorem, which puts constraints on the approach to
更新日期：2022-01-01
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