Consortium

Richard Healey

Professor in philosophy,
University of Arizona

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As a philosopher of physics I have focused mostly on quantum theory, initially as an uncritical scientific realist eager to explore the metaphysical implications of its representation of fundamental physical reality. After a detour studying the conceptual foundations of gauge theories I came to believe that an understanding of quantum theory could be better achieved by asking not what it represents but how it is used. The resulting view of quantum theory is pragmatist—a pragmatism that I am now applying more broadly to scientific laws, probability, causation and objectivity.