Branching in the landscape of possibilities
Branching in the landscape of possibilities
复制标题
在可能性的景观中分支
作者：
T. Müller
关于未来可能性的分支树的比喻有许多重要的哲学和逻辑用途。在本文中，我们跟踪这个比喻通过它的一些用途，并认为隐喻的工作方式在物理学中的哲学。然后，我们给出了一个概述的形式系统的分支的可能性，即，分支时间和（简单地说）分支时空。在下一步中，我们将描述一些不同的可能性概念，从而勾勒出一幅可能性的图景。在本文的最后一节中，我们将研究基于分支的可能性在更大的可能性景观中的位置。我们要传达的主要信息是，基于分支的可能性远非古怪的形而上学的夸张，它在认识论和形而上学上都是基本的。
The metaphor of a branching tree of future possibilities has a number of important philosophical and logical uses. In this paper we trace this metaphor through some of its uses and argue that the metaphor works the same way in physics as in philosophy. We then give an overview of formal systems for branching possibilities, viz., branching time and (briefly) branching space-times. In a next step we describe a number of different notions of possibility, thereby sketching a landscape of possibilities. In the final section of the paper we look at the place of branching-based possibilities in that larger landscape of possibilities. Our main message is that far from being an outlandish metaphysical extravagancy, branching-based possibilities are epistemically as well as metaphysically basic.