Veiled Reality

By questioning the validity of some of our basic concepts such as space object and causality quantum physics contributes quite decisively to the dramatic changes now taking place in our world picture.This book is addressed not only to physicists at an early stage in their careers (the first or second year graduate student) but also to philosophers as well as to all the senior physicists interested in the interpretation problem. Beginning with a chapter that could be described as ?philosophy for physicists? it presents an in-depth analysis of present-day quantum mechanical concepts an analysis of physicists and philosophers alike. Specifically it first offers an extensive critical analysis of such topics as the Einstein Podolsky Rosen reality criterion nonseparatability the quantum measurement riddle decoherence theory consistent histories approaches and ontologically interpretable theories. All this then naturally leads to philosophical questions concerning in particular intersubjective agreement and the limit of realism. And a thorough examination of this whole material finally leads to the view that distinguishing between empirical reality and a veiled man-independent reality yields an acceptable answer to the perplexing question of how to interpret quantum physics. Veiled Reality offers nonspecialists including students in physics philosophy and the history of science an accessible perspective on basic problems in the foundations of physics.