Scientific Objectivity and its Limits

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.

20 pages, no figures. To appear in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science: manuscript without copy editing or final corrections available online at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/716169