Phenomenology, Perspectivalism and (Quantum) Physics

• Published in: Foundations of physics Vol. 54; no. 3
• Main Author: French, Steven
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Classical Mechanics; History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics; Phenomenology; Philosophy of Science; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum mechanics; Quantum Physics; Quantum statistics; Relativity Theory; Statistical Physics and Dynamical Systems; Phenomenology; Cosmopolitanism; Perspectivism; Measurement problem; Relational Quantum Mechanics; QBism
• ISSN: 0015-9018; 1572-9516
• DOI: 10.1007/s10701-024-00769-3

It has been claimed that Massimi’s recent perspectival approach to science sits in tension with a realist stance. I shall argue that this tension can be defused in the quantum context by recasting Massimi’s perspectivalism within a phenomenological framework. I shall begin by indicating how the different but complementary forms of the former are manifested in the distinction between certain so-called ‘-epistemic’ and ‘-ontic’ understandings of quantum mechanics, namely QBism and Relational Quantum Mechanics, respectively. A brief consideration of Dieks’ perspectivism will then lead to a consideration of the much-maligned and typically dismissed role of the observer in the measurement process. This opens the door to London and Bauer’s presentation of a form of ‘phenomenological quantum perspectivalism’ that brings together Massimi’s two forms and explicitly eschews the ‘naïve’ realism that creates the above tension. I shall conclude with some reflections on how intersubjectivity can still be established within this framework, focusing in particular on how Massimi’s idea of ‘interlacing’ scientific perspectives can be accommodated, using the example of a ‘new cosmopolitanism’ that gave rise to Bose-Einstein statistics.