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arXiv · 2010.01013

Scientific Objectivity and its Limits

Richard Healey
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Abstract

Measurement outcomes provide data for a physical theory. Unless they are objective they support no objective scientific knowledge. So the outcome of a quantum measurement must be an objective physical fact. But recent arguments purport to show that if quantum theory is universally applicable then there is no such fact. This calls for a reappraisal of the notions of fact and objectivity. If quantum theory is universally applicable the facts about the physical world include a fact about each quantum measurement outcome. These physical facts lack an ideal kind of objectivity but their more modest objectivity is all that science needs.

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Richard Healey. 2020-10-02. Scientific Objectivity and its Limits. https://doi.org/10.1086/716169

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