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The Metaphysics Experiment Modern Physics and the Politics of Nature The Metaphysics Experiment Modern Physics and the Politics of Nature by Bjorn Ekeberg BA, Concordia University, 2003 MA, Simon Fraser University, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Political Science and Cultural, Social, Political Thought (CSPT) © Bjorn Ekeberg, 2010 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee The Metaphysics Experiment Modern Physics and the Politics of Nature by Bjorn Ekeberg BA, Concordia University, 2003 MA, Simon Fraser University, 2005 Supervisor: Dr. Arthur Kroker (Department of Political Science) Member: Dr. R.B.J. Walker (Department of Political Science) Outside Member: Dr. Stephen Ross (Department of English) Additional Member: Dr. David Cook (Victoria College, University of Toronto) iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Supervisor: Dr. Arthur Kroker (Department of Political Science) Member: Dr. R.B.J. Walker (Department of Political Science) Outside Member: Dr. Stephen Ross (Department of English) Additional Member: Dr. David Cook (Victoria College, University of Toronto) The Metaphysics Experiment attempts to explicate a theory and history of universalism in modern physics, through an analysis of its conception of nature. Understood as an axiomatic and hegemonic metaphysical premise through four hundred years of scientific and political history, universalism is defined in terms of its general and persistent claim to nature or truth as an ahistorical reality. Thus, I argue that universalism is directly implicated in, not opposed to, the (Christian) monotheistic conception of God. Moreover, universalism constitutes the logic according to which nature is differentiated from history, culture, and politics. It thus constructs both sides of the same ostensible oppositions in the so-called science and culture wars that determine much of today’s politics of nature. The scientific and political dominance of universalism is demonstrated through a history in five acts. Using the current Large Hadron Collider experiment in Geneva as a principal case study in Act 1, and drawing on contemporary philosopher of science, Isabelle Stengers, I consider four pivotal historical moments in the history of physics and metaphysics that determine the universalist claims of this contemporary experiment. In Act 2, the mid-20th century development of Albert Einstein’s General Relativity framework and Big Bang Theory is read against Martin Heidegger’s critique of identity logic. In Act 3, the mid-17th century emergence of the mathematical universe in modern science and philosophy, through Galileo Galilei and René Descartes, is read against Benedict Spinoza’s univocal metaphysics. In Act 4, the late 19th century invention of particle or quantum physics is read against Henri Bergson’s idea of mind-matter dualism. Finally, in Act 5, considering the contemporary use of natural constants in physics, the insights of Michel Serres, Bruno Latour, Peter Sloterdijk, Heidegger, Stengers and Spinoza are drawn together to problematize the modern historical role of physics and its metaphysical constitution of nature. Beyond these historical event-scenes, I also offer a theoretical explication of five logics, demonstrated individually Act by Act, that comprise different dimensions of science in action. Thus, physics is considered historically both as theoretical and experimental practice and as a form of political mobilization. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee..........................................................................................ii Abstract.................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents...................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments..................................................................................................v Dedication.............................................................................................................vi PROLOG: Toward the Logic of a World-Object..................................................... 1 ACT I — ANA....................................................................................................... 11 Physics, that is, God: The Invention of the Large Hadron Collider....................... 11 1. Geneva, 2008............................................................................................... 12 2. Experimental Particles................................................................................... 19 3. Stengers’ Event of Invention.......................................................................... 28 4. Universalism on a String............................................................................... 34 5. Beyond the Cave........................................................................................... 42 ACT II –– HYPO................................................................................................... 50 General Ontological Difference: Being, Beings, and the Big Bang....................... 50 1. Long Island, NY, 1953................................................................................... 51 2. Einstein’s General Relativity.......................................................................... 55 3. Heidegger’s Ontological Difference.............................................................. 64 4. Hawking’s Big Bang...................................................................................... 74 5. The Onto-Theo-Logical Event........................................................................ 84 ACT III –– AUTO.................................................................................................. 93 God, that is, Nature: The Invention of Universalism............................................ 93 1. Amsterdam, 1633......................................................................................... 94 2. Galileo’s Void............................................................................................... 99 3. Descartes’ Vortex........................................................................................ 109 4. Spinoza’s Voice........................................................................................... 123 5. Beyond the Principle of Reason.................................................................. 136 ACT IV –– META................................................................................................ 143 Asymmetrical Doubling: Probability, Proliferation, Particularity....................... 143 1. Jena, 1889.................................................................................................. 144 2. Maxwell’s Continuity.................................................................................. 151 3. Bergson’s Harmony..................................................................................... 158 4. Planck’s Discontinuity................................................................................. 169 5. The Invention of Particle Physics................................................................. 183 ACT V –– CATA.................................................................................................. 193 Nature, that is, Culture: The Constancy of Universalism.................................... 193 1. Planet Earth, 2010...................................................................................... 194 2. Nature against Universal Constancy............................................................ 200 3. Nature against the Universal Parasite.......................................................... 212 4. Culture against Mobilization....................................................................... 225 5. Toward a Metaphysics of Equiversalism....................................................... 238 Bibliography....................................................................................................... 246 v Acknowledgments I am grateful to my committee members for encouraging and constructive comments on earlier drafts, and especially to my supervisor, Dr. Arthur Kroker, for his broad and generous scope of interest, his trenchant critical reflections, and for allowing me freedom of intellectual movement through the curious canons of our history. I thank physicists I met at CERN and University of Victoria for their patience with the questions of an outsider. Philosophically, I have learnt immensely from my many conversations with Seth Asch, who first led me onto reading Spinoza. Without my loving parents in Norway, I may never have had the freedom of physical movement to go so far away for an education. And without my loving muse and partner, Kelsey Nutland, I may never have had the stability to complete such a vertiginous project. Funding for this project was provided by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. vi Dedication To an existential sentiment, once expressed by F. Scott Fitzgerald: One should be able to see that everything is hopeless and yet be determined to make it otherwise. PROLOG: Toward the Logic of a World-Object Within the complex of machinery that is necessary to physics in order to carry out the smashing of the atom lies hidden the whole of physics up to now. Martin Heidegger 2
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