Ozbir Kip (Oxford): 'A Phenomenological Approach to Quantum Mechanics'
Abstract: In 1939, Fritz London and Edmond Bauer published The Theory of Observation in Quantum Mechanics. In this ‘little book’, as Eugene Wigner called it, the authors gave an account of the measurement process in quantum mechanics. The work did not receive much attention from philosophers until recently, in a book by Steven French titled A Phenomenological Approach to Quantum Mechanics (2023), in which French claims that what was implicit in London and Bauer’s work was in fact a new approach to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, namely aphenomenological approach. Laced with historical narrative, French’s attempt to bring out exactly what such a position entails is unclear. In this talk, I aim to explicate French’s position and explore what such a phenomenological approach might entail for the ontology of quantum theory. I claim that insofar as an observer-system distinction can be drawn, phenomenology offers us a legitimate way of framing this distinction in a manner that allows us to escape the problem of macroscopic superpositions. I argue that despite such a success, it comes with a high metaphysical price-tag.
Registration: If you do not hold a university card, please contact the seminar convenor or admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk at least two working days before a seminar to register your attendance.
Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch Seminar Convenors: Paolo Faglia, Gregor Gajic and Rachel Pederson
