Identity in Physics: A Historical, Philosophical, and Formal Analysis

by Steven French, Décio Krause

Steven French and Decio Krause examine the metaphysical foundations of quantum physics. They draw together historical, logical, and philosophical perspectives on the fundamental nature of quantum particles and offer new insights on a range of important issues. Focusing on the concepts of identity and individuality, the authors explore two alternative metaphysical views; according to one, quantum particles are no different from books, tables, and people in this respect; according to the other, they most certainly are. Each view comes with certain costs attached and after describing their origins in the history of quantum theory, the authors carefully consider whether these costs are worth bearing. Recent contributions to these discussions are analyzed in detail and the authors present their own original perspective on the issues. The final chapter suggests how this perspective can be taken forward in the context of quantum field theory.

Genres: Philosophy

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Research Interests:
- Philosophy of Science, especially models and the semantic approach, representation and structural realism
- Philosophy of Physics, especially the metaphysical foundations of quantum mechanics
- History of Physics, especially twentieth century

Steve French is Professor of the Philosophy of Science and his teaching and research interests are in the philosophy of science and the history and philosophy of modern physics. He has recently published a book on structural realism (The Structure of the World: Metaphysics and Representation; OUP 2014) and is currently working on a series of papers on monism, dispositionalism and the relationship between science and metaphysics in general. He is also planning to explore further the connections between the philosophy of art and the philosophy of science with regard to the nature of scientific and artistic objects. At some point he is going to stun the world (or not) with a book on Husserl and the phenomenological approach to quantum mechanics.

Steven is Co-Editor-in-Chief (with Michela Massimi of the University of Edinburgh) of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (http://bjps.oxfordjournals.org/), one of the most highly regarded journals in the field. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Palgrave-Macmillan series, New Directions in Philosophy of Science (www.palgrave.com/products/series.aspx...).

Reviews

[Yates Buckley]

Extremely technical but fascinating... I admit I was unable to fully dive into it give its complexity but I could appreciate the depth of the domain.

I wish there were synthesised accessible introductions to these books for the broader audience.

[Alexandre Guay]

Au moment de sa publication, l'ouvrage définitif sur l'ontologie des particules quantiques.