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Possible Worlds in the Modal Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Meir Hemmo
Meir Hemmo*
Affiliation:
Cambridge University
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Abstract

An outline for a modal interpretation in terms of possible worlds is presented. The so-called Schmidt histories are taken to correspond to the physically possible worlds. The decoherence function defined in the histories formulation of quantum theory is taken to prescribe a non-classical probability measure over the set of the possible worlds. This is shown to yield dynamics in the form of transition probabilities for occurrent events in each world. The role of the consistency condition is discussed.

Type
Modal Interpretations of Quantum Theory
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3 , 1996 , pp. S330 - S337
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Jeremy Butterfield, Itamar Pitowsky, Pieter Vermaas, and especially, Guido Bacciagaluppi for many discussions and valuable comments.

‡

Department of Philosophy, Cambridge University, Wolfson College, Cambridge, England CB3 9BB.

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