Epistemic Contextualism, Unarticulated Constituents and Hidden Variables

Dialogue ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246
Author(s):  
AHMAD REZA HEMMATI MOGHADDAM
Keyword(s):  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Epistemic Contextualism ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Epistemic Standard ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
Unarticulated Constituents

Epistemic contextualism was devised mainly to provide a solution to the problem of skepticism based on a thesis about the truth conditions of knowledge attributing sentences. In this paper, I’ll examine two possible semantic bases of epistemic contextualism i.e., (i) the epistemic standard is an unarticulated constituent, (ii) the epistemic standard is a hidden variable. After showing that the unarticulated constituent thesis is incompatible with epistemic contextualism, I’ll argue that the hidden variable account remains unconvincing. My aim in this paper is to show that questions remain that must be answered before epistemic contextualism can claim success in the project of resolving skepticism.

scholarly journals Pearle’s Hidden-Variable Model Revisited

Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard David Gill
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Programming Language ◽  
Simulation Experiment ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Variable Model ◽  
Open Problems ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
Particle Pairs ◽  
Statistical Programming

Pearle (1970) gave an example of a local hidden variables model which exactly reproduced the singlet correlations of quantum theory, through the device of data-rejection: particles can fail to be detected in a way which depends on the hidden variables carried by the particles and on the measurement settings. If the experimenter computes correlations between measurement outcomes of particle pairs for which both particles are detected, he or she is actually looking at a subsample of particle pairs, determined by interaction involving both measurement settings and the hidden variables carried in the particles. We correct a mistake in Pearle’s formulas (a normalization error) and more importantly show that the model is simpler than first appears. We illustrate with visualizations of the model and with a small simulation experiment, with code in the statistical programming language R included in the paper. Open problems are discussed.

Mathematical Gateway to Complementary Hidden Variables in Macrophysics

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 117-142
Author(s):  
Jakub Czajko
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Synthetic Approach ◽  
Cumulative Impact ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
And Mathematics

It is shown that even physically meaningful and experimentally confirmed formulas of physics and mathematics can be extended by enabling some previously unrecognized (or considered as just fixed) parameters to either vary independently and thus reveal them as previously hidden variables or to turn them into fixed exposure functions whose cumulative impact varies along yet another formerly hidden variable. Uncovering of hidden variables requires (new) synthetic approach to mathematics. The need for revealing hidden variables is prompted mainly by unanticipated experimental results, whose more precise outcomes apparently challenge the previously espoused paradigms upon which those simpler former formulas had been established. Operational rules of calculus can reveal the hidden variables that could extend the laws of classical physics whose predictions disagree with new experimental evidence. Presence of such variables has already been confirmed in several experiments.

Fisher-renormalized critical exponents by two hidden variables

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (11) ◽  
pp. 1011-1014
Author(s):  
C. E. Cordeiro ◽  
D. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Critical Exponents ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Hidden Variable

The Fisher approach to obtain the critical exponents through the introduction of one hidden variable in the system is extended to the case where a physical system needs two or more hidden variables for its description.

What is wrong with unarticulated constituents?

Human Affairs ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marián Zouhar
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Logical Form ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Unarticulated Constituents

AbstractIt is quite popular nowadays to postulate various kinds of unarticulated constituents that have essential bearing on truth conditions of utterances. F. Recanati champions an elaborated version of contextualism according to which one has to distinguish two kinds of unarticulated constituents: those that are articulated at the level of the logical form of a given sentence and those that are truly unarticulated. Recanati offers a theory which explains the manner of incorporating truly unarticulated constituents into the propositions expressed. This theory invokes variadic functions. The present paper shows that variadic functions are unnecessary because no constituents are truly unarticulated in the sense assumed by Recanati. An alternative explanation is offered according to which all propositional constituents are either explicitly or implicitly represented at the syntactic level.

scholarly journals On joint distributions, counterfactual values and hidden variables in understanding contextuality

2019 ◽  
Vol 377 (2157) ◽  
pp. 20190144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Random Variables ◽  
Mathematical Tool ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Joint Distributions ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
The Core ◽  
Made In

This paper deals with three traditional ways of defining contextuality: (C1) in terms of (non)existence of certain joint distributions involving measurements made in several mutually exclusive contexts; (C2) in terms of relationship between factual measurements in a given context and counterfactual measurements that could be made if one used other contexts; and (C3) in terms of (non)existence of ‘hidden variables’ that determine the outcomes of all factually performed measurements. It is generally believed that the three meanings are equivalent, but the issues involved are not entirely transparent. Thus, arguments have been offered that C2 may have nothing to do with C1, and the traditional formulation of C1 itself encounters difficulties when measurement outcomes in a contextual system are treated as random variables. I show that if C1 is formulated within the framework of the Contextuality-by-Default (CbD) theory, the notion of a probabilistic coupling, the core mathematical tool of CbD, subsumes both counterfactual values and ‘hidden variables’. In the latter case, a coupling itself can be viewed as a maximally parsimonious choice of a hidden variable. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Contextuality and probability in quantum mechanics and beyond’.

scholarly journals On local-hidden-variable no-go theorems

2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 633-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
A A Méthot
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Complete Theory ◽  
Variable Theory ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Hidden Variable Theories ◽  
03.65 Ud ◽  
Local Hidden Variable

The strongest attack against quantum mechanics came in 1935 in the form of a paper by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen. It was argued that the theory of quantum mechanics could not be called a complete theory of Nature, for every element of reality is not represented in the formalism as such. The authors then put forth a proposition: we must search for a theory where, upon knowing everything about the system, including possible hidden variables, one could make precise predictions concerning elements of reality. This project was ultimately doomed in 1964 with the work of Bell, who showed that the most general local hidden variable theory could not reproduce correlations that arise in quantum mechanics. There exist mainly three forms of no-go theorems for local hidden variable theories. Although almost every physicist knows the consequences of these no-go theorems, not every physicist is aware of the distinctions between the three or even their exact definitions. Thus, we will discuss here the three principal forms of no-go theorems for local hidden variable theories of Nature. We will define Bell theorems, Bell theorems without inequalities, and pseudo-telepathy. A discussion of the similarities and differences will follow. PACS Nos.: 03.65.–w, 03.65.Ud, 03.65.Ta

scholarly journals Bell's conspiracy, Schrödinger's black cat and global invariant sets

2015 ◽  
Vol 373 (2047) ◽  
pp. 20140246 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. N. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Bell Inequalities ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Invariant Set ◽  
Invariant Sets ◽  
Variable Theory ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
Radioactive Atom ◽  
Global Invariant

A locally causal hidden-variable theory of quantum physics need not be constrained by the Bell inequalities if this theory also partially violates the measurement independence condition. However, such violation can appear unphysical, implying implausible conspiratorial correlations between the hidden variables of particles being measured and earlier determinants of instrumental settings. A novel physically plausible explanation for such correlations is proposed, based on the hypothesis that states of physical reality lie precisely on a non-computational measure-zero dynamically invariant set in the state space of the universe: the Cosmological Invariant Set Postulate. To illustrate the relevance of the concept of a global invariant set, a simple analogy is considered where a massive object is propelled into a black hole depending on the decay of a radioactive atom. It is claimed that a locally causal hidden-variable theory constrained by the Cosmological Invariant Set Postulate can violate the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality without being conspiratorial, superdeterministic, fine-tuned or retrocausal, and the theory readily accommodates the classical compatibilist notion of (experimenter) free will.

scholarly journals Analysis of single-particle nonlocality through the prism of weak measurements

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (01) ◽  
pp. 1941024
Author(s):  
Danko Georgiev ◽  
Eliahu Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Functional Dependence ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Quantum Probability ◽  
Weak Values ◽  
Weak Measurements ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Complex Valued ◽  
Hidden Variable Models ◽  
Local Hidden Variable

Although regarded today as an important resource in quantum information, nonlocality has yielded over the years many conceptual conundrums. Among the latter are nonlocal aspects of single particles which have been of major interest. In this paper, the nonlocality of single quanta is studied in a square nested Mach–Zehnder interferometer with spatially separated detectors using a delayed choice modification of quantum measurement outcomes that depend on the complex-valued weak values. We show that if spacelike separated Bob and Alice are allowed to freely control their quantum devices, the geometry of the setup constrains the local hidden variable models. In particular, hidden signaling and a list of contextual instructions are required to split a quantum state characterized by a positive Wigner function into two quantum states with nonpositive Wigner functions. This implies that local hidden variable models could rely neither on only two hidden variables for position and momentum, nor on simultaneous factorizability of both the hidden probability densities and weights of splitting to reproduce the correct quantum distributions. While our analysis does not fully exclude the existence of nonfactorizable local hidden variable models, it demonstrates that the recently proposed weak values of quantum histories necessitate contextual splitting of prior commitments to measurement outcomes, due to functional dependence on the total Feynman sum that yields the complex-valued quantum probability amplitude for the studied quantum transition. This analysis also highlights the quantum nature of weak measurements.

scholarly journals KOCHEN–SPECKER THEOREM AND EXPERIMENTAL TEST ON HIDDEN VARIABLES

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 2813-2820 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADÁN CABELLO
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Experimental Test ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
State System ◽  
Recent Proposal ◽  
Hidden Variable ◽  
Hidden Variable Theories

A recent proposal to experimentally test quantum mechanics against noncontextual hidden-variable theories [Phys. Rev. Lett.80, 1797 (1998)] is shown to be related with the smallest proof of the Kochen–Specker theorem currently known [Phys. Lett.A212, 183 (1996)]. This proof contains eighteen yes-no questions about a four-dimensional physical system, combined in nine mutually incompatible tests. When these tests are considered as tests about a two-part two-state system, then quantum mechanics and noncontextual hidden variables make the same predictions for eight of them, but make different predictions for the ninth. Therefore, this ninth test would allow us to discriminate between quantum mechanics and noncontextual hidden-variable theories in a (gedanken) single run experiment.

‘Free’ Enrichment and the Nature of Pragmatic Constraints

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Hall
Keyword(s):  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Pragmatic Enrichment ◽  
Explicit Content ◽  
Contextualist Approach ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Utterance Interpretation ◽  
Free Enrichment ◽  
Unarticulated Constituents

The contextualist approach to utterance interpretation posits processes of “free” pragmatic enrichment that supply unarticulated constituents of the explicit content of utterances. While this proposal is faithful to our intuitions about the truth conditions of utterances, and accommodates the optionality of these pragmatic effects, there remains a doubt about whether contextualism can account in any principled way for what pragmatically derived material enters into explicit content, and what does not. This gap in the theory leads to objections that the putative process of pragmatic enrichment would massively overgenerate interpretations of utterances, having no way to exclude from explicit content elements of meaning that are truth-conditionally irrelevant. Here I discuss how a derivational account can sort explicit content from implicatures, where the former is a result of “developing” the linguistically-encoded form, while implicatures are entirely inferred, from fully propositional premises. Using the idea that enrichment is constrained to the minimum necessary to inferentially warrant the implications of the utterance, I show how the derivational account can address existing examples of alleged overgeneration, and that these rest on a failure to properly appreciate that the occurrence of such “free” pragmatic processes depends on the details of the particular context in which the utterance was tokened. I conclude with a discussion of what kind of systematicity should be expected from an account of processes whose outcome is inevitably context-specific.

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