Propensities in a non-deterministic physics

N. Gisin

pp. 287-297

in: Synthese 89 (2), 1991.

Abstract

Propensities are presented as a generalization of classical determinism. They describe a physical reality intermediary between Laplacian determinism and pure randomness, such as in quantum mechanics. They are characterized by the fact that their values are determined by the collection of all actual properties. It is argued that they do not satisfy Kolmogorov axioms; other axioms are proposed.