Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics - The Nature of Interpretation

The Nature of Interpretation

More or less all interpretations of quantum mechanics share two qualities:

1. They are interpretations of a formalism — a set of equations and formulae for generating results and predictions — and
2. they are interpretations of a phenomenology, a set of observations, including both those obtained by empirical research, and more informal subjective ones (that humans invariably observe an unequivocal world is important in the interpretation of quantum mechanics).

The qualities that vary between interpretations are:

1. the ontology which is concerned with what, if anything, the interpreted theory is "really about" and
2. the epistemology which is concerned in what is knowledge, how are we acquiring it and to what extent is it possible for a given subject or entity to be known.

The same phenomenon may be given an ontological reading under one interpretation, and an epistemological one under another. For instance, indeterminism may be attributed to the real existence of a "maybe" in the universe (ontology) or to limitations of an observer's information and predictive abilities (epistemology). Interpretations may be broadly classed as leaning more towards ontology, i.e. realism, or towards anti-realism.

Some approaches tend to avoid giving any interpretation of phenomena or formalism. These can be described as instrumentalist. Other approaches suggest modifications to the formalism, and are therefore, strictly speaking, alternative theories rather than interpretations. In some cases, for instance Bohmian mechanics, it is open to debate as to whether an approach is equivalent to the standard formalism.