On Witness-Discernibility of Elementary Particles
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In the context of discussions about the nature of ‘identical particles’ and the status of Leibniz’s Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles in Quantum Mechanics, a novel kind of physical discernibility has recently been proposed, which we call witness-discernibility. We inquire into how witness-discernibility relates to known kinds of discernibility. Our conclusion will be that for a wide variety of cases, including the intended quantum-mechanical ones, witness-discernibility collapses extensionally to absolute discernibility, that is, to discernibility by properties.
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- On Witness-Discernibility of Elementary Particles
Volume 78, Issue 5 , pp 1133-1142
- Cover Date
- Print ISSN
- Online ISSN
- Springer Netherlands
- Additional Links
- Elementary particles
- Quantum mechanics
- Leibniz’s principle
- Author Affiliations
- 3. Department of Philosophy, 12-14 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6DP, UK
- 1. Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burg. Oudlaan 50, H5-10, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 2. Department of Physics & Astronomy, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands