| Metaphysics studies the most basic structure of the world itself.The core question is: What are the most basic things in this world? What are the natures or the most fundamental characteristics of these things? And what is the relationship between them? A metaphysical discussion involving a specific discipline often cares about the reality of core concepts in this field,for example,philosophy of mathematics cares about the reality of numbers,philosophy of mind investigates the reality of the mind,and moral philosophy explores the reality of moral attributes.For the philosophy of quantum physics,there is a question that has plagued many physicists and philosophers since the birth of quantum mechanics.Does the wave function,which is the core concept of quantum mechanics,refer to the state of reality,or is it just a mathematical tool that allows us to calculate probability,or something else?In order to clarify this,many scholars have put forward their own views,such as understanding wave functions as physical fields,laws,and curvature of space.However,these over-professional discussions often require a lot of background in physics,and lack the fun of philosophical thinking.Therefore,in order to make the discussion of this topic not only interesting,but also professional,this article will first investigate the wave function from a general philosophical perspective,and then further discuss the question in combination with specific physical theories.In the first chapter of this thesis,we will explain the philosophical puzzle of the wave function and supplement the necessary physical knowledge;in the second chapter,we will probe into the wave function from the views of general metaphysics,where in the first and second sections,we will focus on the reasons of scientific realism and antirealism to analyze the wave function,and in the third section,we will analyze the wave function from the perspective of different modal theories(involving modal realism and modal fictionalism);in Chapter 3,we will explore this issue from the perspectives of specific metaphysics,of which in Section 1,we will introduce the basic framework in philosophy of quantum mechanics,in Section 2,we will introduce the reasons which regard wave function as a state of knowledge,and in Section 3,we will present the reasons for supporting the view that wave function stand for a state of reality;finally,in the concluding remarks,we will briefly introduce a new point of view,which not only treats "wave function" as a useful tool,but also as a concept that refers to something real,and further explain why physics can’t tell us exactly what the "wave function" specifically refers to. |
