GRW and the tails problem

Topoi 14 (1):23-33 (1995)
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Abstract

The GRW theory is a recent attempt to solve the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, and the tails problem is a well-known and potentially fatal criticism of the GRW theory. The first half of the paper is an exposition of the measurement problem, the GRW theory, and the tails problem. In the remainder of the paper, two methods of dealing with the tails problem are considered: first, altering the GRW theory so as to avoid the tails problem; and second, denying that the tails problem is more than a novel aspect of a universal vagueness in the way scientific theories relate to everyday language.

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Peter J. Lewis
Dartmouth College

Citations of this work

How Many Lives Has Schrodinger's Cat?David Lewis - 2004 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 82 (1):3-22.
Four Tails Problems for Dynamical Collapse Theories.Kelvin J. McQueen - 2015 - Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 49:10-18.
Quantum mechanics, orthogonality, and counting.Peter J. Lewis - 1997 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (3):313-328.
Non-accessible mass and the ontology of GRW.Cristian Mariani - 2022 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 91 (C):270-279.

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References found in this work

Wanted Dead or Alive: Two Attempts to Solve Schrodinger's Paradox.David Albert & Barry Loewer - 1990 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990:277-285.

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