Probability and Quantum Mechanics

Probability and quantum mechanics have been closely related from an early date. This summer school will look at various historical and philosophical aspects of this relation. On the historical side, we shall trace the development of the 'statistical interpretation' as developed by Born (and Heisenberg) in 1926-27, and address the usually misunderstood topic of how Everett himself thought of probability in his theory. On the philosophical side, we shall discuss the relation between interpretations of probability and interpretations of quantum mechanics (including among others the Deutsch-Wallace decision-theoretic approach to probability in Everett, and Chris Fuchs's radically subjectivist 'qBism'), and possible lessons for the philosophy of probability. We shall also discuss the relation between probability and arrow of time in quantum mechanics (with particular reference to decoherence). Finally, we shall look at the notion of contextuality and at formal and conceptual relations between classical probability, quantum probability, and 'generalised probability' (possibly with applications beyond quantum mechanics).