Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch Seminar (Thursday - Week 7, MT24)

Abstract: It’s been almost 30 years since the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics (RQM) was introduced by Carlo Rovelli (Rovelli, 1996) and, over time, the interpretation has changed and developed significantly. Still, I claim that current formulations of RQM do not solve the problem of measurement. Moreover, I argue that the prospects of articulating a version of RQM which both meets its own goals and solves the measurement problem are not promising. The problem is the following. All versions of RQM explain the world in terms of an ontology of systems and events, where an event consists of a variable of a system taking a value relative to another system. I argue that, in order to solve the problem of measurement, RQM needs to offer a specification of the circumstances in which events occur. Current formulations of RQM claim that events occur whenever interactions occur. However, no precise characterisation of the notion of interaction is given. I develop the most plausible ways of understanding the notion of interaction in the context of RQM, but I show that they fail to provide a satisfactory specification of the circumstances of the occurrence of events. In light of the failed constructive efforts, I conclude that the prospects for formulating a version of RQM which both satisfies its aims and solves the problem of measurement are dim.

The PoP-grunch (Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch) is a weekly informal seminar in which graduate students in Philosophy of Physics present their work in progress.