Abstract
As we emphasized in previous chapters, Schrödinger’s rejection of corpuscularian entities, and his adoption of wave entities instead, can only be understood in the light of his general views on ontology. Our aim in this chapter is to provide one with an exposition and a critical assessment of Schrödinger’s conception of the objects (or “things”) of everyday life, and then to connect it back with the ontological issues raised by quantum mechanics. This connection is by no means artificial, for Schrödinger developed his ideas about the “things” of everyday life in permanent relation with his reflection on quantum mechanics. In most texts, quantum mechanics even appears as the true motivation for a (usually short) discussion about general ontology.
A former (and shorter) version of this reflection on Schrödinger’s conception of the “thing” of everyday life can be found in: M. Bitbol, “Esquisses, forme, et totalité”, in: M. Bitbol and O. Darrigol (eds.), Erwin Schrödinger, Philosophy and the birth of quantum mechanics, op. cit.
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Reference
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Non-locality and contextualism of properties are conditions imposed on hidden variable theories of any kind. They are imposed on theories which take particle properties as their hidden variables (or “beables”), but they also apply to the theories which take field properties as their “beables”. See D. Bohm & B.J. Hiley, The undivided universe, Routledge, 1993. Other conditions are more specific of the corpuscularian varieties of hidden variable theories.
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This raises the Leibnizian question of the identity of indiscernibles. In 1673 (in his Confessio Philosophi), Leibniz still thought that it is possible to individualize a material body by extrinsic determinations such as location and time. But later on, Leibniz considered that locations are defined by reference to individual substances (or monads). Therefore, “In addition to the difference of time or of place there must always be an internal principle of distinction” (G.W. Leibniz, New essays on human understanding, Cambridge University Press, 1982, II, XXVII, §1).
E. Schrödinger, Science and Humanism, op. cit.1956 p. 19. Even Leibniz’s “internal principle of distinction” can be considered as amere internalization of the principle of continuous history. See e.g. Discourse on metaphysics, XIII: “(…)The concept of an individual substance includes once for all everything which can ever happen to it”.
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Bitbol, M. (1996). The ‘Thing’ of Everyday Life. In: Schrödinger’s Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 188. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1772-9_5
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