Philosophy of Physics

<p><b>A sophisticated and original introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics from one of the world's leading philosophers of physics</b> <p/>In this book Tim Maudlin one of the world's leading philosophers of physics offers a sophisticated original introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics. The briefest clearest and most refined account of his influential approach to the subject the book will be invaluable to all students of philosophy and physics. <p/>Quantum mechanics holds a unique place in the history of physics. It has produced the most accurate predictions of any scientific theory but more astonishing there has never been any agreement about what the theory implies about physical reality. Maudlin argues that the very term quantum theory is a misnomer. A proper physical theory should clearly describe what is there and what it does--yet standard textbooks present quantum mechanics as a predictive recipe in search of a physical theory. <p/>In contrast Maudlin explores three proper theories that recover the quantum predictions: the indeterministic wavefunction collapse theory of Ghirardi Rimini and Weber; the deterministic particle theory of deBroglie and Bohm; and the conceptually challenging Many Worlds theory of Everett. Each offers a radically different proposal for the nature of physical reality but Maudlin shows that none of them are what they are generally taken to be.</p>