Quantum holism: nonseparability as common ground
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Quantum holism: nonseparability as common ground Jenann Ismael1 · Jonathan Schaffer2
Received: 8 February 2016 / Accepted: 18 August 2016 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract Quantum mechanics seems to portray nature as nonseparable, in the sense that it allows spatiotemporally separated entities to have states that cannot be fully specified without reference to each other. This is often said to implicate some form of “holism.” We aim to clarify what this means, and why this seems plausible. Our core idea is that the best explanation for nonseparability is a “common ground” explanation (modeled after common cause explanations), which casts nonseparable entities in a holistic light, as scattered reflections of a more unified underlying reality. Keywords Entanglement · Non-separability · Grounding · Common ground · Holism · Monism [T]hat which we conceive as existing (“actual”) should somehow be localized in time and space. That is, the real in one part of space, A, should (in theory) somehow “exist” independently of that which is thought of as real in another part of space, B. If a physical system stretches over parts of space A and B, then what is present in B should somehow have an existence independent of what is present in A. (Einstein to Max Born; quoted in Howard 1997, p. 121) A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This
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Jonathan Schaffer [email protected] Jenann Ismael [email protected]
1
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
2
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
123
Synthese
delusion is a kind of prison for us,. . . (Einstein to Robert Marcus; quoted in Sullivan 1972, p. 20)
1 Introduction Quantum mechanics seems to portray nature as nonseparable. Roughly speaking, this means that quantum mechanics seems to allow two entities—call them Alice and Bob—to be in separate places, while being in states that cannot be fully specified without reference to each other. Alice herself thus seems incomplete (and likewise Bob), not an independent building block of reality, but perhaps at best a fragment of the more complete composite Alice+Bob system (and ultimately a fragment of the whole interconnected universe). We propose to articulate a natural explanatory strategy for quantum nonseparability via common ground. Common ground explanations are modeled after common cause explanations. In a common cause explanation one finds a correlation among events and infers the existence of a common cause. In a common ground explanation one finds a connection between entities and infers the existence of a common metaphysical ground, thereby viewing nonseparable entities (such as Alice and Bob) in a holistic light, as scattered reflections of a more unified underlying reality. Quantum mechanics is often said to implicate some form of “holism.” What are we adding? We aim to make the
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