2017/11/06 by Christian de Ronde, de Ronde, Christian · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Philosophy and Theoretical Science #Philosophy and History of Science
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1711.02997
In this paper we compare two different notions of 'power', both of which\nattempt to provide a realist understanding of quantum mechanics grounded on the\npotential mode of existence. For this propose we will begin by introducing two\ndifferent notions of potentiality present already within Aristotelian\nmetaphysics, namely, irrational potentiality and rational potentiality. After\ndiscussing the role played by potentiality within classical and quantum\nmechanics, we will address the notion of causal power which is directly related\nto irrational potentiality and has been adopted by many interpretations of QM.\nWe will then present the notion of immanent power which relates to rational\npotentiality and argue that this new concept presents important advantages\nregarding the possibilities it provides for understanding in a novel manner the\ntheory of quanta. We end our paper with a comparison between both notions of\n'power', stressing some radical differences between them.\n