The dissertation is a defense of the following conditional claim: if there are
objective collapses of the wavefunction, then the future is genuinely open.
Although this is no radically new idea, the strategy I shall use to defend it is
a new one. It proceeds in two main steps. First, building upon the recent
literature on metaphysical indeterminacy in quantum mechanics, I argue
for the view that systems in superposition have be interpreted as objectively
indeterminate state of affairs. Second, I propose an alternative way to think
of openness, according to which the future is open as of t, if and only
if there is an indeterminate state of affair S at t, and S becomes determinate
at t\u2019 (with t\u2019 later than t). To argue for the second step, I will give an
analysis of the objective collapses of the wavefunction as the becoming
determinate of previously indeterminate systems. Furthermore, in
developing my arguments, I will also make some remarks concerning the
ontology of objective collapse interpretations of quantum mechanics, the
issue of whether metaphysical indeterminacy can be at some derivate level
of reality, and the possibility of the openness of the future being an
emergent phenomenon
