1988/06/01 by STEVEN FRENCH, Steven French, MICHAEL REDHEAD +1 · 288 citations
Computer Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Boson #Charge (physics) #Elementary particle #Fermion #Identity (music) #Interpretation (philosophy) #Mathematics #Philosophy #Physics #Quantization (signal processing) #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum mechanics #Theoretical physics
paper · doi:10.1093/bjps/39.2.233
published in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 39(2), 233-246 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 1988/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This paper is concerned with the question of whether atomic particles of the same species, i. e. with the same intrinsic state-independent properties of mass, spin, electric charge, etc, violate the Leibnizian Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles, in the sense that, while there is more than one of them, their state-dependent properties may also all be the same. The answer depends on what exactly the state-dependent properties of atomic particles are taken to be. On the plausible interpretation that these should comprise all monadic and relational properties that can be expressed in terms of physical magnitudes associated with self-adjoint operators that can be defined for the individual particles, then the weakest form of the Principle is shown to be violated for bosons, fermions and higher-order paraparticles, treated in first quantization