Jeffrey A. Barrett is Chancellor's Professor in Logic and Philosophy of Science at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

, where he specializes in philosophy of physics.

Education and career

He earned his Ph.D. in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. In 2011, he was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Zukunftskollegs at the University of Konstanz. In 2022, he was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

Philosophical work

Barrett is known for his work on the

measurement problem In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is the ''problem of definite outcomes:'' quantum systems have superpositions but quantum measurements only give one definite result. The wave function in quantum mechanics evolves deterministically ...

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

(why and how quantum systems collapse when one measures them), and particularly on the

many-worlds interpretation The many-worlds interpretation (MWI) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts that the universal wavefunction is Philosophical realism, objectively real, and that there is no wave function collapse. This implies that all Possible ...

Hugh Everett Hugh Everett III (; November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who proposed the relative state interpretation of quantum mechanics. This influential approach later became the basis of the many-worlds interpretation (MWI). Ev ...

. His book ''The Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds'' (Oxford University Press, 2000) concerns this problem and its solutions, and his book with Peter Byrne, ''The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Collected Works 1955-1980 with Commentary'' (Princeton University Press, 2012) collects the works of Everett himself on this problem.

References

External links

Jeffrey A. Barrett's UC Irvine web page

Jeffrey A. Barrett's preprints

Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics
- Barrett's article on

Hugh Everett III Hugh Everett III (; November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who proposed the relative state interpretation of quantum mechanics. This influential approach later became the basis of the many-worlds interpretation (MWI). Ev ...

's formulation of quantum mechanics in the

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') is a freely available online philosophy resource published and maintained by Stanford University, encompassing both an online encyclopedia of philosophy and peer-reviewed original publication ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Jeffrey A. American logicians University of California, Irvine faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people)