CRITIQUE OF PUTNAM QUANTUM LOGIC

Putnam gives a strongly realist account of quantum logic. This has been criticised as suggesting a hidden variable interpretation for quantum mechanics. Friedman and Glymour have done this in the framework of noncontextual hidden variable theories, which, however, does not fully represent Putnam's ideas. Here Putnam's approach to quantum logic is understood in terms of contextual truth-value assignments. The concept of a measurement is discussed. It follows that in order to reproduce quantum mechanical predictions a kind of disturbance is necessary, which is then analyzed. Finally, it is shown that the Putnam approach does not escape proofs of nonlocality, and thus shares, indeed, the unwelcome features of a hidden variable theory.