Interpreting Quantum Theory: A Therapeutic Approach

Debates about the foundations of quantum theory usually circle around two main challenges: the so-called 'measurement problem' and a claimed tension between quantum theory and relativity theory that arises from the phenomena labelled 'quantum non-locality'. This work explores the possibility of a 'therapeutic approach' to these problems that regards them as arising from mistaken conceptual presuppositions and quantum theory as a fully respectable theory that is fine as it stands.

Pursuing this project, the book develops and defends the idea that quantum states do not represent features of physical reality, it distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate uses of anthropocentric notions in foundational accounts, it considers the nature of explanation in quantum theory, and it addresses complications that arise in quantum field theory. In addition, it argues that quantum theory is 'locally causal' inasmuch as quantum probabilities, properly construed, are independent of what occurs at space-like distance.