Weak Discernibility and Relations between Quanta

Philosophy of Science 82 (5):1188-1199 (2015)
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Abstract

Some authors have attempted to defend Leibniz’s Identity of Indiscernibles through weak discernibility. The idea is that if there is a symmetric, nonreflexive physical relation that holds between two particles, then those particles cannot be identical. In this article I focus only on Muller and Saunders’s account and argue that the means by which they achieve weak discernibility is not through a quantum mechanical observable but an alternate mathematical construction that is both unorthodox and incomplete.

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Joshua Norton
University of California, Irvine

References found in this work

The structure and interpretation of quantum mechanics.R. I. G. Hughes - 1989 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Quantum physics and the identity of indiscernibles.Steven French & Michael Redhead - 1988 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 39 (2):233-246.
Discerning Fermions.Simon Saunders & F. A. Muller - 2008 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (3):499 - 548.
Physics and Leibniz's principles.Simon Saunders - 2002 - In Katherine Brading & Elena Castellani (eds.), Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 289--307.
The Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.R. I. G. Hughes - 1992 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 54 (4):735-736.

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