Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-2pp2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T22:05:28.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Quantum Mechanics Disprove the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

R. L. Barnette
R. L. Barnette*
Affiliation:
Valdosta State College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Alberto Cortes, in [1], attempts to show (a) that Leibniz's Principle of The Identity of Indiscernibles (L) is a principle restricted to individuals (as distinct from a class of entities Cortes takes to be non-individuals), and (b) that photons (light quanta) appear to violate L (since they don't obey Pauli's Exclusion Principle). L is stated by Leibniz as “no two substances are completely similar, or differ solo numero.” In second-order quantification theory with identity L becomes:

Information

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 466 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

†

Special thanks go to an anonymous referee of this journal and to its editor, Kenneth Schaffner, for their helpful suggestions for improving the original version of this paper.

References

[1] Cortes, A. “Leibniz's Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles: A False Principle.” Philosophy of Science 43, (1976): 491–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Van Fraassen, B. “Probabilities and the Problem of Individuation.” In Probabilities, Problems and Paradoxes, ed. by Luckenbach, S. A. Encino, California: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1972.Google Scholar