Cowling Distinguished Professor Laura Ruetsche, a Carleton alum who is now the chair of philosophy at Michigan and the author of this book will be teaching a 300-level seminar in the Philosophy department during Spring term, 2/3c.
Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics
Quantum theories are astonishingly successful…and deeply mysterious. Niels Bohr remarked that “those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.” Richard Feynman said “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” Some quantum weirdness is unavoidable — it appears, for instance, that nature is disturbingly non-local. Other weirdnesses are features of some ways of understanding quantum mechanics but not others: indeterminism, randomness, branching worlds, surprising connections between the physical and the mental. We will examine contemporary approaches, including: Bohm’s deterministic theory, spontaneous collapse theories, and many-worlds/minds theories.
Pre-reqs: a course in philosophy OR physics OR mathematics, or permission of the instructor.