* WINNER OF THE 1988 LAKATOS AWARD FOR AN OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE * This book concentrates on research done during the last twenty years on the philosophy of quantum mechanics. In particular, the author focuses on three major issues: whether quantum mechanics is an incomplete theory, whether it is non-local, and whether it can be interpreted realistically. Much of the book is concerned with distinguishing various
senses in which these questions can be taken, and assessing the bewildering variety of answers philosophers and physicists have given up to now. The book is self-contained in that it presents the
necessary parts of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics and also covers other interpretative topics, such as the problem of measurement and the uncertainty relations. A considerable portion of the book is based on original arguments presented by the author in lectures and research papers over the past ten years. However, this material is integrated with a broad coverage of most of the recent research in the field, so as to provide a balanced introduction to the whole subject.
Industry Reviews
'Michael Redhead has given us a fine, hard book that stands head and shoulders above the usual crop.'Canadian Philosophical Review
'a paradigm of the new philosophy of physics ... long-awaited, authoritative and splendid book.' Philosophical Books
'Redhead's book is a useful update of Max Jammer's The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics' New Scientist
`This is an important book, by a philosopher of physics who has played a significant role in disentangling some of the conceptual issues involved in the contemporary debate on incompleteness, nonlocality, and realism.'
International Studies in Philosophy
`Michael Redhead's arguments are presented with masterly care ... He modestly subtitles the book `a prolegomenon to the philosophy of quantum mechanics', but like an earlier prolegomenon it heralds a very fundamental shift in our way of looking at things.'
Radical Philosophy
`Michael Redhead's book will provide a much-appreciated entry to this field for anyone who has a nodding acquaintance with the physics and mathematics of quantum mechanics but a serious interest in probing its conceptual foundations.'
Philosophy of Science
'a very readable and useful ... overview of the realism debates in quantum mechanics since the Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen argument ... The book begins with an exceptionally clear and concise introduction to the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics. Redhead's book is a valuable one ... the book is meant to help us comprehend the technical details of a very difficult literature, and this it does extremely well. It is to be strongly recommended for
anyone seriously intrerested in the foundations of quantum mechanics.'
John F. Halpin, Oakland University, Philosophia, Volume 21, Nos. 3-4, April 1992
