Probabilistic Knowledge as Objective Knowledge in Quantum Mechanics: Potential Powers Instead of Actual Properties

Abstract

In classical physics, probabilistic or statistical knowledge has been always re- lated to ignorance or inaccurate subjective knowledge about an actual state of affairs. This idea has been extended to quantum mechanics through a completely incoherent interpretation of the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics in terms of strange quantum particles. This interpretation, naturalized through a widespread way of speaking in the physics community, contradicts Born's physical account of Ψ as a probability wave which provides statistical information about outcomes that, in fact, cannot be interpreted in terms of ignorance about an actual state of affairs. In the present paper we discuss how the metaphysics of actuality has played an essential role in limiting the possibilities of understating things differently. We propose instead a metaphysical scheme in terms of immanent powers with definite potentia which allows us to consider quantum probability in a new light, namely, as providing objective knowledge about a potential state of affairs.