Interpretations of quantum physics
The biggest problem for understanding quantum physics is that the latter predicts that microscopic quantum objects (such as electrons) can interact with macroscopic objects (such as cats) in so-called "superposition states" in such a way that superpositions, e.g. of dead and living cat states, occur. However, we never observe anything like this-which gives us the so-called "measurement problem of quantum mechanics". According to the Copenhagen interpretation, it is crucial to draw a line between the measured micro-object and the macroscopic measuring apparatus (the cat) and to describe the measuring apparatus (or the observer) classically rather than quantum mechanically. This would solve the measurement problem to a certain extent, but in a non-transparent way. Since the 1980s at the latest, several alternative approaches have been established, including the De Broglie-Bohm theory and the many-worlds theory, which offer a real solution to the measurement problem. What these newer proposals have in common is that no so-called collapse on one of the possible measurement results (e.g. cat dead or cat alive) is postulated, but that either no collapse is necessary at all or collapses are precisely specified on the microscopic level, which are transparently transferred to the observable macro level. In my presentation, I will show what these solutions and interpretations consist of and what strengths and weaknesses they have.
Meinard Kuhlmann has been a philosopher of science in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Mainz since 2014. Prior to that, he taught and/or researched at the Universities of Bremen, Oxford, Pittsburgh, Hanover, London, Jena and Bielefeld, among others. From 2012 to 2021, he was spokesperson for the Philosophy of Physics working group of the German Physical Society.
Monographs: "Ontological Aspects of Quantum Field Theory" (ed. with H. Lyre and A. Wayne), 2002; "The Ultimate Constituents of the Material World - In Search of an Ontology for Fundamental Physics", 2010; "Philosophie der Quantenphysik" (ed. with C. Friebe, H. Lyre, P. Näger, O. Passon and M. Stöckler, 2018; "Unbestimmt und relativ? Das Weltbild der modernen Physik" (ed. with Helmut Fink), 2023.
