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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Advance Access originally published online on April 11, 2006
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2006 57(2):359-381; doi:10.1093/bjps/axl006
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for the Philosophy of Science. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Conspiracy Theories of Quantum Mechanics

Peter J. Lewis

Department of Philosophy, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124-4670, USA plewis{at}miami.edu

It has long been recognized that a local hidden variable theory of quantum mechanics can in principle be constructed, provided one is willing to countenance pre-measurement correlations between the properties of measured systems and measuring devices. However, this ‘conspiratorial’ approach is typically dismissed out of hand. In this article I examine the justification for dismissing conspiracy theories of quantum mechanics. I consider the existing arguments against such theories, and find them to be less than conclusive. I suggest a more powerful argument against the leading strategy for constructing a conspiracy theory. Finally, I outline two alternative strategies for constructing conspiracy theories, both of which are immune to these arguments, but require one to either modify or reject the common cause principle.

  1. Introduction
  2. The incompleteness of quantum mechanics
  3. Hidden variables
  4. Hidden mechanism conspiracy theories
  5. Existing arguments against hidden mechanisms
  6. A new argument against hidden mechanisms
  7. Backwards-causal conspiracy theories
  8. Acausal conspiracy theories
  9. Conclusion


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