Element contents
Series: Elements in Metaphysics
Indeterminacy in the World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2023
Summary
The way we represent the world in thought and language is shot through with indeterminacy: we speak of red apples and yellow apples without thereby committing to any sharp cutoff between the application of the predicate 'red' and of the predicate 'yellow'. But can reality itself be indeterminate? In other words, can indeterminacy originate in the mind-independent world, and not only in our representations? If so, can the phenomenon also arise at the microscopic scale of fundamental physics? Section 1 of this Element provides a brief overview of the question of indeterminacy. Section 2 discusses the thesis that the world is comprised of indeterminate objects, whereas Section 3 focuses on the thesis that there are indeterminate states of affairs. Finally, Section 4 is devoted to the case study of indeterminacy in quantum physics.
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Series: Elements in MetaphysicsOnline ISBN: 9781009057370Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 01 June 2023
References
Akiba, K. (2000). Vagueness as a modality. Philosophical Quarterly, 50(200), 359–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akiba, K. (2014a). A defense of indeterminate distinctness. Synthese, 191(15), 3557–3573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akiba, K. (2014b) Introduction. In Akiba, K. & Abasnezhad, A., eds., Vague Objects and Vague Identity: New Essays on Ontic Vagueness. Dordrecht: Springer 1–21.Google Scholar
Akiba, K. (2017). A unification of two approaches to vagueness: The Boolean many-valued approach and the modal-precisificational approach. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 46(4), 419–441.Google Scholar
Akiba, K. (2022). The Boolean many-valued solution to the sorites paradox. Synthese, 200(2), 1–25.Google Scholar
Aristotle (1963). Aristotle in Twenty-Three Volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. M. (2004). Truth and Truthmakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barker, S. (2014). Semantic paradox and alethic undecidability. Analysis, 74(2), 201–209.Google Scholar
Barnes, E. (2009). Indeterminacy, identity and counterparts: Evans reconsidered. Synthese, 168(1), 81–96.Google Scholar
Barnes, E. (2010). Ontic vagueness: A guide for the perplexed. Noûs, 44(4), 601–627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, E. (2013). Metaphysically indeterminate existence. Philosophical Studies, 166(3), 495–510.Google Scholar
Barnes, E. (2014). Fundamental indeterminacy. Analytic Philosophy, 55(4), 339–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, E. & Cameron, R. (2008). The open future: Bivalence, determinism and ontology. Philosophical Studies, 146(2), 291–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, E. & Cameron, R. (2017). Are there indeterminate states of affairs? No. In Barnes, E., ed., Current Controversies in Metaphysics. London: Routledge, pp. 120–131.Google Scholar
Barnes, E. & Williams, J. R. G. (2009). Vague parts and vague identity. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 90(2), 176–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, E. & Williams, J. R. G. (2011). A theory of metaphysical indeterminacy. In Bennett, K., K. & Zimmerman, D. W., eds., Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, vol. 6. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 103–148.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. A. (2019). The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bell, J. S. (1966). On the problem of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Reviews of Modern Physics, 38, 447–452.Google Scholar
Birkhoff, G. & von Neumann, J. (1936). The logic of quantum mechanics. Annals of Mathematics, 823–843 Vol. 37, No. 4Google Scholar
Bokulich, A. (2014). Metaphysical indeterminacy, properties, and quantum theory. Res Philosophica, 91(3), 449–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boolos, G. (1984). To be is to be a value of a variable (or to be some values of some variables). Journal of Philosophy, 81(8), 430–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, J. A. (1990). Vague objects and indefinite identity. Philosophical Studies, 59(3), 263–287.Google Scholar
Caie, M. (2014). Metasemantics and metaphysical indeterminacy. In Burgess, A. & Sherman, B., eds., Metasemantics: New Essays on the Foundations of Meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 55–96.Google Scholar
Calosi, C. (2022). Quantum modal indeterminacy. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 95, 177–184.Google Scholar
Calosi, C. & Mariani, C. (2020). Quantum relational indeterminacy. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 71, 158–169.Google Scholar
Calosi, C. & Mariani, C. (2021). Quantum indeterminacy. Philosophy Compass, 16(4), e12731.Google Scholar
Calosi, C. & Wilson, J. M. (2019). Quantum metaphysical indeterminacy. Philosophical Studies, 176(10), 2599–2627.Google Scholar
Calosi, C. & Wilson, J. M. (2021). Quantum indeterminacy and the double-slit experiment. Philosophical Studies, 178(10), 3291–3317.Google Scholar
Calosi, C. & Wilson, J. M. (2022). Metaphysical indeterminacy in the multiverse. In Allori, V., ed., Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality: Naturalizing Quantum Theory between Scientific Realism and Ontological Indeterminacy. Cham: Springer, pp. 375–395.Google Scholar
Cantor, G. (1878). Ein Beitrag zur Mannigfaltigkeitslehre. Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik, 1878(84), 242–258.Google Scholar
Cobreros, P., Egré, P., Ripley, D. & Rooij, R. (2013). Identity, Leibniz’s Law and non-transitive reasoning. Metaphysica, 14(2), 253–264.Google Scholar
Cohen, P. J. (1963). The independence of the continuum hypothesis: Part I. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 50(6), 1143–1148.Google Scholar
Corti, A. (2021). Yet again, quantum indeterminacy is not worldly indecision. Synthese, 199(3), 5623–5643.Google Scholar
Dalla Chiara, M. L. & Giuntini, R. (2002). Quantum logics. In Gabbay, D. & Guenthner, F., eds., Handbook of Philosophical Logic, 2nd ed., vol. 6. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 129–228.Google Scholar
Darby, G. (2010). Quantum mechanics and metaphysical indeterminacy. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 88(2), 227–245.Google Scholar
Darby, G. (2014). Vague objects in quantum mechanics? In Akiba &, K. A. Abasnezhad, eds., Vague Objects and Vague Identity: New Essays on Ontic Vagueness. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 69–108.Google Scholar
Darby, G. & Pickup, M. (2021). Modelling deep indeterminacy. Synthese, 198, 1685–1710.Google Scholar
Dorr, C. & Hawthorne, J. (2013). Naturalness. In Bennett, K. & Zimmerman, D., eds., Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, vol. 8. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–77.Google Scholar
Einstein, A., Podolsky, B. & Rosen, N. (1935). Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete? Physical Review, 47(10), 777–780.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eklund, M. (2008). Deconstructing ontological vagueness. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 38(1), 117–140.Google Scholar
Eklund, M. (2011). Being metaphysically unsettled: Barnes and Williams on metaphysical indeterminacy and vagueness. In Bennett, K. & Zimmerman, D. W., eds., Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, vol. 6. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 149–172.Google Scholar
Fine, K. (2017). Truthmaker semantics. In Wright, C. & Hale, B., eds., A Companion to the Philosophy of Language. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 556–577.Google Scholar
Finocchiaro, P. (2019). Ideology and its role in metaphysics. Synthese, 198(2), 957–983.Google Scholar
Fletcher, S. C. & Taylor, D. E. (2021a). Quantum indeterminacy and the eigenstate-eigenvalue link. Synthese, 199(3–4), 1–32.Google Scholar
Fletcher, S. C. & Taylor, D. E. (2021b). Two quantum logics of indeterminacy. Synthese, 199(5–6), 13247–13281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frege, G. (1903). Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, begriffsschriftlich abgeleitet, vol. 2. Jena: Hermann Pohle.Google Scholar
French, S. & Krause, D. (2006). Identity in Physics: A Historical, Philosophical, and Formal Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbard, A. (1975). Contingent identity. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 4(2), 187–221.Google Scholar
Gilton, M. J. R. (2016). Whence the eigenstate-eigenvalue link? Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 55, 92–100.Google Scholar
Glick, D. (2017). Against quantum indeterminacy. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy, 6(3), 204–213.Google Scholar
Glick, D. & Boge, F. J. (2021). Is the reality criterion analytic? Erkenntnis, 86(6), 1445–1451.Google Scholar
Gödel, K. (1940). The Consistency of the Continuum-Hypothesis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hamkins, J. D. (2012). The set-theoretic multiverse. Review of Symbolic Logic, 5(3), 416–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, M. (1996). Against metaphysical vagueness. Philosophical Perspectives, 10, 177–185.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. G. (1953). Reflections on Nelson Goodman’s The Structure of Appearance’. Philosophical Review, 62, 108–116.Google Scholar
Kochen, S. & Specker, E. (1967). The problem of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics, 17, 59–87.Google Scholar
Ladyman, J. & Ross, D. (2007). Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. K. (1968). Counterpart theory and quantified modal logic. Journal of Philosophy, 65(5), 113–126.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. K. (1983). New work for a theory of universals. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 61(4), 343–377.Google Scholar
Lewis, P. J. (2016). Quantum Ontology: A Guide to the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, P. J. (2022). Explicating quantum indeterminacy. In Allori, V., ed., Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality: Naturalizing Quantum Theory between Scientific Realism and Ontological Indeterminacy. Cham: Springer, pp. 351–363.Google Scholar
Loss, R. (2018). Against “against ‘against vague Existence.’” In Bennett, K. & Zimmerman, D. W., eds., Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, vol. 11. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.278–288.Google Scholar
Lowe, E. J. (1994). Vague identity and quantum indeterminacy. Analysis, 54(2), 110–114.Google Scholar
Machina, K. F. (1976). Truth, belief, and vagueness. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 5(1), 47–78.Google Scholar
Mariani, C. (2022a). Indeterminacy: Deep but not rock bottom. Analytic Philosophy, 63(1), 62–71.Google Scholar
Mariani, C. (2022b). Non-accessible mass and the ontology of GRW. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 91, 270–279.Google Scholar
Mariani, C., Michels, R. & Torrengo, G. (2021). Plural metaphysical supervaluationism. Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 1–38.Google Scholar
Mariani, C. & Torrengo, G. (2021). The indeterminate present and the open future. Synthese, 199(1–2), 3923–3944.Google Scholar
Maudlin, T. (2014). What Bell did. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 47(42), 424010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGee, V. & McLaughlin, B. (1994). Distinctions without a difference. Southern Journal of Philosophy, 33(S1), 203–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merricks, T. (2001). Varieties of vagueness. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 62(1), 145–157.Google Scholar
Morreau, M. (2002). What vague objects are like. Journal of Philosophy, 99(7), 333–361.Google Scholar
Newhard, J. (2020). Alethic undecidability and alethic indeterminacy. Synthese, 199(1–2), 2563–2574.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. (2007). Theories of location. In Zimmerman, D. W., ed., Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 201–232.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (2000). Indeterminate Identity: Metaphysics and Semantics. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Rayo, A. (2017). The world is the totality of facts, not of things. Philosophical Issues, 27(1), 250–278.Google Scholar
Rayo, A. & Yablo, S. (2001). Nominalism through de-nominalization. Noûs, 35(1), 74–92.Google Scholar
Schaffer, J. (2009). Spacetime the one substance. Philosophical Studies, 145(1), 131–148.Google Scholar
Schroeren, D. (2021). Quantum metaphysical indeterminacy and the ontological foundations of orthodoxy. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 90, 235–246.Google Scholar
Skow, B. (2010). Deep metaphysical indeterminacy. Philosophical Quarterly, 60(241), 851–858.Google Scholar
Smith, N. J. J. & Rosen, G. (2004). Worldly indeterminacy: A rough guide. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 82(1), 185–198.Google Scholar
Sud, R. (forthcoming). Quantifier Variance, Vague Existence, and Metaphysical Vagueness. Journal of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Taylor, D. E. (2018). A minimal characterization of indeterminacy. Philosophers’ Imprint, 18.Google Scholar
Taylor, D. E. & Burgess, A. (2015). What in the world is semantic indeterminacy? Analytic Philosophy, 56(4), 298–317.Google Scholar
Teller, P. (1986). Relational holism and quantum mechanics. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 37(1), 71–81.Google Scholar
Thomason, R. H. (1970). Indeterminist time and truth-value gaps. Theoria, 18(3), 264–281.Google Scholar
Torza, A. (2020a). Quantum metaphysical indeterminacy and worldly incompleteness. Synthese, 197(10), 4251–4264.Google Scholar
Torza, A. (2020b). Structural indeterminacy. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 101(2), 365–382.Google Scholar
Torza, A. (2022). Derivative metaphysical indeterminacy and quantum physics. In Allori, V., ed., Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality: Naturalizing Quantum Theory between Scientific Realism and Ontological Indeterminacy. Cham: Springer, pp. 337–350.Google Scholar
Turner, J. (2016). The Facts in Logical Space: A Tractarian Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tye, M. (1994). Sorites paradoxes and the semantics of vagueness. Philosophical Perspectives, 8, 189–206.Google Scholar
Von Neumann, J. (1955). Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wallace, D. (2019). What is orthodox quantum mechanics? In Cordero, A., ed., Philosophers Look at Quantum Mechanics. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Wasserman, R. (2017). Vagueness and the laws of metaphysics. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 95(1), 66–89.Google Scholar
Williams, J. R. G. (2008a). Multiple actualities and ontically vague identity. Philosophical Quarterly, 58(230), 134–154.Google Scholar
Williams, J. R. G. (2008b). Ontic vagueness and metaphysical indeterminacy. Philosophy Compass, 3(4), 763–788.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (1999). On the structure of higher-order Vagueness. Mind, 108(429), 127–143.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (2003a). Vagueness in reality. In Loux, M. J. & Zimmerman, D. W., eds., The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 690–715.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (2013). Modal logic as metaphysics. Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar
Wilson, Jessica M. (2017). Are There Indeterminate States of Affairs? Yes. In Elizabeth Barnes (ed.), Current Controversies in Metaphysics. Taylor & Francis. pp. 105–119.
Google Scholar
Wilson, A. (2020). The Nature of Contingency: Quantum Physics As Modal Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. M. (2013). A determinable-based account of metaphysical indeterminacy. Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 56(4), 359–385.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1921). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Translated 1961 by D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness.Google Scholar
- 10
- Cited by