2020-21 Academic Catalog

Quantum theories are astonishingly successful...and deeply mysterious. Niels Bohr remarked that “those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.” Richard Feynman said “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” Some quantum weirdness is unavoidable—it appears, for instance, that nature is disturbingly non-local. Other weirdnesses are features of some ways of understanding quantum mechanics but not others: indeterminism, randomness, branching worlds, surprising connections between the physical and the mental. We will examine contemporary approaches, including: Bohm's deterministic theory, spontaneous collapse theories, and many-worlds/minds theories. This course will not presuppose prior background in quantum theory or its mathematics. Required mathematical concepts will be explicated as we go along. If you already understand the Pythagorean theorem, you'll probably find that this amounts to learning new ways of naming familiar ideas. Prerequisite: One Previous Philosophy course or instructor consent