The aim of this paper is to outline a position concerning the unity of knowledge and to provide a model for the relationship between reality and knowledge. This paper is based on remarks made by E.W. Beth in his Foundations of Mathematics, in which he claims a new version of realism is needed. This realism would hold that man is acquainted with four aspects of reality and that the various aspects should be considered complementary. More specifically Beth states: In my opinion, man has on account of his own life experience an immediate and authentic contact with various spheres (perhaps it would be better to say, zones, or aspects) of reality, some of which may be enumerated; physical reality - the world of matter -, social reality - the world of men -, subjective reality - the world of mind -, logical reality - the world of reason or discourse - , in which mathematical entites participate. It seems reasonable however tentatively to consider the various spheres of reality as complementary. . . . (Beth, 1959, pp. 644-645) I will be using the principle of complementarity in its general form to argue for a certain type of unity of knowledge. In the introduction I discuss the general need for unity of knowledge. Attempts at unity in atomic physics are examined in Chapter I, in particular the role of complementarity in unifying the theory of Quantum Mechanics. Chapter II treats complementarity as a thema in Hoi ton's sense, "an unverifiable, unfalsifiable and yet not quite arbitrary hypothesis" that is crucial to the development of knowledge (Hoiton, 1973, pp. 185-192). Chapter II also examines applications of complementarity in contexts other than atomic physics. Having shown the principle in use in different contexts I proceed in Chapter III to develop my main thesis -that the principle of complementarity represents a new model of explanation. When applied to the problem of the unity of knowledge, the principle would suggest the view that knowledge is a description of projections of the actual state, reality, on the observer. This view is compatible with a new version of realism. Complementarity, together with modest realism, modest foundational ism and a prospective conception of truth can be used to provide the outline of an alternative to foundational ism and coherentism. Chapter IV discusses complementarity in relation to other metaphysical and epistemological approaches to the monism-pluralism issue. Chapter V discusses the possibility of a realistic interpretation of knowledge in the special case of science. I conclude with a summary of the argument in this paper. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Orientador: Marcos Cesar de Oliveira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T01:00:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Steinhoff_FrankEduardodaSilva_D.pdf: 2714393 bytes, checksum: d1256ecbace356f03551217989caaae6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A presente tese é um conjunto de resultados relativos à não-classicalidade e ao emaranhamento, que são conceitos fundamentais da física quântica contemporânea. Começamos desenvolvendo uma representação de quasiprobabilidade para sistemas discretos baseada em conjuntos de bases mutuamente não-viesadas, que é uma construção relacionada a um pilar da teoria quântica: o princípio de complementaridade. O conjunto de estados clássicos em nossa representação de quasiprobabilidade já está presente em muitos cenários relacionados, tanto de abordagens fundamentais, bem como práticas e a noção de classicalidade obtida é, portanto, bem-justificada. Um resultado profundo resulta de nossa representação: para qubits, as unidades básicas da teoria da informação quântica, o princípio de complementaridade proíbe a presença de conjecturadas configurações além da física quântica. Assim, a existência de tais objetos superquânticos implicaria uma violação da complementaridade, uma violação que exigiria uma reformulação total das bases conceituais da física quântica. Apresentamos, em seguida, um outro resultado sobre a detecção de não-classicalidade em termos de quantidades observáveis disponíveis na prática. O método está relacionado à noção de não-classicalidade induzida pela tarefa de criação de emaranhamento, que gera uma definição de classicalidade simples mas geral para sistemas físicos arbitrários. Por fim, apresentamos uma nova classe de emaranhamento não-destilável, um fenômeno não-intuitivo em teoria de emaranhamento de difícil caracterização. A construção teórica é baseada em sistemas atualmente utilizados em experimentos de ótica quântica, abrindo assim a possibilidade de implementação prática dos estados emaranhados não-destiláveis em sistemas de variáveis contínuas / Abstract: The present thesis is a collection of results concerning nonclassicality and entanglement, which are fundamental concepts in contemporary quantum physics. We start developing a quasiprobability representation for discrete systems based on sets of mutually unbiased basis, which is a construction related to one pillar of quantum theory: the complementarity principle. The set of classical states in our quasiprobability representation is already present in many related scenarios, both from foundational as well as practical approaches and the notion of classicality obtained is thus well-justified. A deep result follows from our representation: for qubits, the basic units of quantum information theory, the complementarity principle forbids the presence of conjectured configurations beyond quantum physics. Hence, the existence of such superquantum objects would imply a violation of complementarity, a violation that would demand a total reformulation of the conceptual foundations of quantum physics. We present then another result concerning the detection of nonclassicality in terms of observable quantities available in practice. The method is related to the nonclassicality notion induced by the task of entanglement creation, imposing a simple but general definition of classicality for arbitrary physical systems. Finally, we present a novel class of bound entanglement, a non-intuitive phenomenon in entanglement theory that is very hard to characterize. The theoretical construction is based on schemes used currently in quantum optical experiments, thus opening a possibility of practical implementation of bound entangled states in continuous variables systems / Doutorado / Física / Doutor em Ciências