Economical Realism

Economical Realism

Avril Styrman

Economically Empiricist Realism in Axiomatic Ontology

Economical Realism

The Role of Economy in Ontology?

Economy

• Prune out the unnecessary part of metaphysics from science

Economy


• Sustain the necessary part of metaphysics: only those interpretations are required which exist in any case, even if their existence is denied

Economy


• Sustain the necessary part of metaphysics: only those interpretations are required which exist in any case, even if their existence is denied

• Pruning out the unnecessary metaphysics and identifying the necessary metaphysics has the possibility to accelerate the progress of science

Economy

• What happens if an interpretation exists but its existence is denied?

Economy

• What happens if an interpretation exists but its existence is denied?

• The result is uncriticized metaphysics that runs loose

Economy

• “Find a scientific man who proposes to get along without any metaphysics... and you have found one whose doctrines are thoroughly vitiated by the crude and uncriticized metaphysics with which they are packed… Every man of us has a metaphysics, and has to have one; and it will influence his life greatly. Far better, then, that that metaphysics should be criticized and not be allowed to run loose.” Charles Sanders Peirce, Collected Works of Charles Sanders Peirce 1.129

Economy

• Theories/interpretations A and B explain exactly the same thing

Economy


• What is the measure of fitness between A and B?

Economy



• The simplest interpretation is the best

Economy



• The simplest interpretation is the best• Economy might be the only available objective

judge, but only when A and B explain exactly the same thing

Economy

• The importance of economy should not be underestimated, because there exists a jungle of interpretations in science, that effectively muddifies science

Realism

Realism

• Economy/simplicity can be achieved by identifying the anti-realist interpretations in science, and pruning them out as uneconomical alternatives compared to the realist interpretations

Realism

• Economy/simplicity can be achieved by identifying the anti-realist interpretations in science, and pruning them out as uneconomical alternatives compared to the realist interpretations

• Two main alternatives are the two competing groups of interrelated interpretations: realism and solipsism

Realism

• Example 1: economy judging between the generic forms of ontological realism and solipsism

Realism

• Example 1: economy judging between the generic forms of ontological realism and solipsism

• Example 2: economy judging between a realist interpretation and a solipsist intepretation in physics

Ontological Realism

Ontological Realism

Solipsism

Solipsism

Solipsism

Realism or Solipsism?

The solipsist must in any case postulate a dichotomy that is operationally identical to ontological realism


Economy favours realism because solipsism is bothered with an unnecessary appendix: the universal mind


• Is ecomomy a big deal? Why fuzz over it?


• Is ecomomy a big deal? Why fuzz over it?• Because the lack of economy is disastrous


• Is ecomomy a big deal? Why fuzz over it?• Because the lack of economy is disastrous• “Accept one difficulty and the rest follows —a

simple enough proceeding” Aristotle, Physics, bk.1, ch.2, 185a11-12


• Is ecomomy a big deal? Why fuzz over it?• Because the lack of economy is disastrous• “Accept one difficulty and the rest follows —a

simple enough proceeding” Aristotle, Physics, bk.1, ch.2, 185a11-12

• “…far happier they than such as wallow helplessly in a rich mud of conceptions” Charles Sanders Peirce, How to Make Our Ideas Clear, 1878

Realism vs. Solipsism in Physics

Realism vs. Solipsism in Physics

• An example where the measurement results can be given a realist and a solipsist interpretation

Locality and Nonlocality

• What is the velocity of causal influences between spatially separated particulars?



Earth - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alpha Centauri




The speed of light: local Universe




The speed of light: local UniverseFaster than light: nonlocal Universe




The speed of light: local UniverseFaster than light: nonlocal UniverseInstantaneous: nonlocal Universe

Nonlocality Tests

Nonlocality Tests– J.A.W. van Houwelingen N. Gisin D. Salart, A. Baas and H.

Zbinden. Spacelike separation in a Bell test assuming gravitationally induced collapses. Physical Review Letters, 100, 2008.

– P. Grangier A. Aspect and G. Roger. Experimental tests of local realistic theories via Bell’s theorem. Physical Review Letters, 47: 460–463, 1981.

– P. Grangier A. Aspect and G. Roger. Experimental realisation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm gedankenexperiment: a new violation of Bell’s inequalities. Physical Review Letters, 49: 91–94, 1982.

Nonlocality Tests

• Particles a and b are in a singlet state in the source.

Nonlocality Tests

• Particles a and b are in a singlet state in the source.

• The source is manipulated and the particles start moving towards opposite directions

Nonlocality Tests

• Particles a and b both can be measured to have some spin values: spin-up xor spin-down

Nonlocality Tests

• The spins of a and b are correlated: when the spin of a is measured to be spin-up, the spin of b is measured to spin-down, and vice versa:a-up & b-downa-down & b-up

Nonlocality Tests

• The spins of a and b are correlated: when the spin of a is measured to be spin-up, the spin of b is measured to spin-down, and vice versa:a-up & b-down a-up b-downa-down & b-up b-up -down

Nonlocality Tests

• The spins of a and b are correlated: when the spin of a is measured to be spin-up, the spin of b is measured to spin-down, and vice versa:a-up & b-down no b-up & a-up a-down & b-up no a-down & b-down

Nonlocality Tests

• How should the correlation be interpreted?

Nonlocality Tests

• How should the correlation be interpreted?• The realist and the solipsist interpretations

The Realist Interpretation

• The spins of a and b are correlated and there is nothing more into it



• They are measured to be correlated because they have been correlated all along, in the singlet state and after



• They are measured to be correlated because they have been correlated all along, in the singlet state and after

• No superluminal influence is required, and thus locality is not threatened

The Solipsist Interpretation


• So awkward to a realist that it is hard to understand



• Do not get surprised: it is solipsism!



• Do not get surprised: it is solipsism!• Still strongly present in physics


• a and b do not have definite states at all before the measurement



• The measurement itself determines the states of a and b



• The measurement itself determines the states of a and b

• They are in definite states only after the measurement


• Before the measurement a and b are in a superposition:

<b-up&a-down | a-up&b-down>




• The superposition contains both possibilities




• The superposition contains both possibilities• After the measurement they are either in the

state b-up&a-down xor in a-up&b-down, but no longer in a superposition


• Because the measurement of a determines the state of b faster than light travels between a and b, superluminal or instantaneous influences are required. If you believe in the superposition idea, then nonlocality is the conclusion.

Earth a - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - b Alpha Centauri


• Superluminal and/or instantaneous influences are compatible with monism: all is together in some sense

Earth a - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - b Alpha Centauri ab

Speculation• “The particles communicate faster than light.” Tim Maudlin.

Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity. Blackwell Publishers Inc., 2002, p2.

• “A pair of photons created together in the entangled state and allowed to separate remain, no matter how great the separation, causally connected to one another.” Ibid., p162.

• “Two particles, having interacted in the past, form an inseparable whole, even if at present they are far apart.” Giuliano Toraldo Di Francia. A world of individual objects? In Elena Castellani (ed.), Interpreting Bodies: Classical and Quantum Objects in Modern Physics. Princeton University Press, p21–29, 1988, p28.

Speculation

• “When a sparrow falls in Yougoslavia it has effects in the New Brunswick and on Saturn and in the most distant galaxy. Tim Maudlin. Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity. Blackwell Publishers Inc., 2002, p22.

• “Since any particle has certainly interacted with other particles in the past, the world turns out to be nonseparable into individual and independent objects.” Giuliano Toraldo Di Francia. A world of individual objects? In Elena Castellani (ed.), Interpreting Bodies: Classical and Quantum Objects in Modern Physics. Princeton University Press, p21–29, 1988, p28.

Speculation

• The idea of the superposition is troubled also by the Schrödinger’s cat paradox: nothing has properties unless these properties are percieved by a conscious agent

Speculation


• This is very near to solipsism, and against ontological realism where properties are mind-independent

Speculation


• The Schrödinger’s cat paradox can be resolved with other interpretations such as with the many minds/worlds interpretation, where every perception makes the Universe branch based on the superposition <dead | alive>


• Might sound funny but these interpretations are out there


• Extreme empiricism is taken as a starting point: only that what is measured is scientific



• The importance of the measurement is over-propagated into unmeasurable conclusions : superluminal influences and the many-worlds interpretation




• The unmeasurable conclusions are against the original postulate of extreme empiricism




• The unmeasurable conclusions are against the original postulate of extreme empiricism

• This is unnoticed because metaphysics is denied to exist by the extreme empiricist

Solipsism or Realism?

• Which one should we choose, the realist or the solipsist intepretation? The case is unmeasurable.



• Economy favours the realist interpretation: it is a simpler explanation of the measurement results



• Economy favours the realist interpretation: it is a simpler explanation of the measurement results

• Solipsism unnecessarily and effectively muddifies the wells of discourse

Conclusions

• Economical realism is a good way to go. It makes the total science a tighter package than earlier. Accept the necessary part of metaphysics and let economy be the judge.

Conclusions

• Economical realism is a good way to go. It makes the total science a tighter package than earlier. Accept the necessary part of metaphysics and let economy be the judge.

• A case where the utility of philosophy can be easily explained

Documents

Economical Realism