Do We Really Understand Quantum Mechanics?

Do we really need another book on quantum mechanics? Quantum mechanics is one of the greatest scientific achievements, and yet it is still controversial how we should interpret it and what conclusions we are entitled to draw from it. Because of this, it has inevitably attracted many writers, both physicists and philosophers. So, hasn't enough ink been spilled about the subject already? Who needs more? Surprisingly enough, Franck Laloë has shown us that there is still room for another valuable contribution Laloë provides us with a great addition to the abundant (sometimes even redundant) literature. On the one hand we find technical books (for instance Sakurai, or Messiah), while on the other we have introductory books (Albert, Maudlin, and Ghirardi). The former kind of book is full of mathematical details and focused on formal results and so of great value for students needing to learn how to do calculations, solve problems and perform experiments. But such a book is totally useless if one wishes to get a realist picture of the quantum world since it totally ignores the conceptual problems that plague the foundations of quantum mechanics. In contrast, the latter kind of book usually has the aim of introducing the subject to philosophy students, who usually are interested in understanding rather than computing. As a result, this kind of book often disregards technicalities and focuses primarily on the problems of interpreting the formalism and on the possible realist interpretations of the theory. While this approach is extremely valuable in making the conceptual problems crystal clear, its danger is that the philosopher, when confronted with particularly challenging technical material, might still be unable to get around it and arrive at the correct conclusions without being obfuscated by the mathematical detail. So, what seems to be missing, indeed, is a book that combines these two extremes: a book that cares about conceptual issues but at the same time provides enough mathematical details to enable the reader to understand and judge for herself even the more densely technical material.