Skip to main content

Part of the book series: The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science ((WONS,volume 2))

Abstract

This paper has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If these parts are to follow the dramatic unities, they will lead from suffering through recognition to reversal; but of this ideal they may fall short.

The research for this paper was supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Canada Council grant S71-0546. While I have many debts, some of which are indicated at various points below, my debts to Nancy Delaney Cartwright in Part III and in the Appendix are so pervasive that they cannot be adequately chronicled. I hereby acknowledge them gratefully.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. List of special symbols. E Section I.1. Note that the symbol λ plays different roles in Parts II and III.

    Google Scholar 

  2. For a general treatment see Chapter 2 of my Formal Semantics and Logic New York, Macmillan, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cf. Formal Semantics and Logic (Note 3), Chapter 5, Section 2a.

    Google Scholar 

  4. This may be of some relevance to Professor Greechie’s remarks on implication in quantum logics in this volume.

    Google Scholar 

  5. See R. Stalnaker and R. H. Thomason, ‘A Semantic Analysis of Conditional Logic’ Theoria 36 (1970), 23–42; for alternatives see D. Lewis, ‘Completeness and Decidability oi Three Logics of Counterfactual Conditionals’, Theoria 37 (1971), 74-85.

    Google Scholar 

  6. For a general exposition of the actual developments in quantum logic, see the paper by Professors Gudder and Greechie in this volume. More general discussions of quantum logics of various stripe are also found in my ‘The Labyrinth of Quantum Logics’ and ‘The Formal Representation of Physical Quantities’ in Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, Holland, forthcoming

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cf. J. M. Jauch, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1968, p. 100.

    Google Scholar 

  8. S. Kochen and E. P. Specker, The Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics’ Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics 17 (1968), 59–87. See also N. Zierler and M. Schlesinger, ‘Boolean Embeddings of Orthomodular Sets and Quantum Logic’ Duke Mathematical Journal 32 (1965), 251-162.

    Google Scholar 

  9. The deduction I have in mind is that of G. W. Mackey, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, W. A. Benjamin, New York, (1963); see also M. J. Maczynski, ‘A Remark on Mackey’s Axiom System for Quantum Mechanics’ Bulletin de l’cadémie Polonaise des Sciences (Série des sciences mathématique astronomique et physique) 15 (1967), 583-7.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Specifically, see the definition of ‘projective logic’ and Theorem 7.44 in Chapter VII of V. S. Varadarajan, Geometry of Quantum Theory, Vol. I, Van Nostrand, Princeton, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cf. S. Gudder, ‘Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics Reconsidered’, Review of Modern Physics 40 (1968), 229–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. J. C. T. Pool, ‘Baer*-Semigroups and the Logic of Quantum Mechanics’, Communications of Mathematical Physics 9 (1968), 118–41, and’ semi-Modularity and the Logic of Quantum Mechanics’ ibid., 212-28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. This use of’ standard’ is from Varadarajan, op. cit. For a more detailed motivation for the problems discussed in this part see the papers by C. Hooker and myself in the volume referred to in Note 14.

    Google Scholar 

  14. In Part II of my ‘A Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Science’ (henceforth FAPS), pp. 303-366 in Paradigms and Paradoxes (ed. by R. Colodny), University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  15. In FAPS, these were called □-sentences and O-sentences, and written ‘□ (m, E )’ and ‘O(w, E )’

    Google Scholar 

  16. J. Bub, ‘What is a Hidden Variable Theory of Quantum Phenomena?’, International Journal of Theoretical Physics 2 (1969), 101–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. J. Bub, ‘Hidden Variables and Quantum Logic’, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, Holland, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Op. cit. (Note 8).

    Google Scholar 

  19. In different contexts, different Hilbert spaces are used to represent the states of the same system. The present assertion of identity can be similarly understood as having the tacit rider ‘relative to all purposes in a given context.’ It can be taken as a metaphysical assertion only if it is presupposed that for each system there is a state-space which is peculiarly appropriate to it.

    Google Scholar 

  20. See the definition in Kochen and Specker, op. cit., p. 63; note that they follow this with the assumption that if for all states α then m = m’, which we here deny.

    Google Scholar 

  21. After the completion of this paper I found ideas similar to those of what I call the modal interpretation in a paper by A. Fine presented at the Fourth International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Bucharest, August 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Except for the remarks on the statistical interpretation this appendix is a summary of some parts of FAPS; mathematical details may be found in the appendix of FAPS.

    Google Scholar 

  23. With the qualification that in FAPS a single (orthogonal) decomposition of a mixture β was always specified, with the remainder of Uβ ignored. Note added in proof. The question discussed in Section III-2 concerning Equation (11) is settled by a theorem in E. Schrödinger, ‘Probability Relations Between Separated Systems’, Proc. Cambridge Philosophical Society 32 (1936), 446–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1973 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Van Fraassen, B.C. (1973). Semantic Analysis of Quantum Logic. In: Hooker, C.A. (eds) Contemporary Research in the Foundations and Philosophy of Quantum Theory. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2534-8_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2534-8_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-0338-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2534-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics