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Quantum Metaphysics

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Quantum Metaphysics View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Tarja Kallio-Tamminen QUANTUM METAPHYSICS The Role of Human Beings within the Paradigms of Classical and Quantum Physics ISBN 952-10-1927-1 Otamedia Oy 2004 2 Tarja Kallio-Tamminen QUANTUM METAPHYSICS The Role of Human Beings within the Paradigms of Classical and Quantum Physics Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XV, on the 11th of June, 2004 at 12 o’clock. 3 Abstract This study investigates the question of why quantum mechanics still lacks a generally-accepted interpretation in spite of a century of serious deliberation. It is guided by the question whether quantum mechanics requires a radical rethinking of the fundamental ontological and epistemological presuppositions on which the current world-view, a conception of nature adopted at the turn of the modern era, is based. During recent centuries, physics has provided the main tools for the human enterprise of understanding reality and our own role in this context. The classical paradigm of science was based on the idea of an objective material world which obeys strict deterministic laws. It was greatly affected by Newtonian mechanics whose differential equations were easy to interpret as describing the movement of material particles in space and time. Consequently, classical physics inspired a strong belief in a deterministic and clockwork-like universe, external to the human observer. In the quantum framework, the traditional space-time description of classical physics is overtaken by a more abstract description of state. The complex wave-function which resides in abstract multi- dimensional space is the most important term in the theory. It can never be directly observed and the interpretation of this abstract entity has been a source of long controversy. Some researchers consider it to be just a mathematical tool or instrument suitable for predicting the actual outcomes we can observe, others argue that the wave-function refers to some kind of transcendental quantum level. In any case, the wave-function is responsible for the non-local and statistical constitution of quantum physics which are difficult to understand and explain within the mechanical and deterministic paradigm of classical physics. With the new description of state, some kind of indivisibility, internal spontaneity and change appear to be a an unavoidable part of reality. The core of this study consists of the chapters investigating quantum theory and the debate concerning its interpretation which has now continued for almost a century. Chapter 4 starts with a brief explanation of the results of physical research that led to the creation of quantum theory, and describes the main features of the theory in common language avoiding mathematics and any further interpretation. Analysis of new features of the theory such as wave-particle dualism, non-locality, statistical predictions and the measurement problem helps in understanding why quantum mechanics is difficult to perceive within the mechanistic-deterministic framework of classical physics. The theory seems to provide encouragement for the endeavour of reconsidering classical presuppositions concerning the nature of reality. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics actually proposed a radical reappraisal of both previous conceptions of reality and the role of humans, whereas many subsequent interpretations have attempted to find a route back to the classical mechanical and deterministic framework by postulating a variety of auxiliary hypotheses. This research material, i.e. the structure and interpretations of quantum mechanics, is studied against the background of previous conceptions of reality and the changes they brought about in western culture, in order to analyse and evaluate the credibility of the metaphysical presuppositions adopted by the classical paradigm of science. The author argues that contrary to the common presuppositions of the classical paradigm, the relationship between the human mind and nature may not be entirely one of detachment, and everything that happens may not be explainable by reducing individual events to mechanical interactions between particles. In the concluding chapter, she extends Niels Bohr’s philosophy of complementarity and outlines an onto-epistemological framework within which many of the apparent paradoxes of quantum mechanics could be understood and solved. Even if profound revisions in the conception of reality are rare, the common world-view has, in western culture, changed radically in antiquity and at the turn of the modern era. The current change could be comparable in its extent, providing tools for a reconciliation of the age- old schism between natural science and humanistic concerns. By questioning the particle-mechanistic conception of matter, the new ontology offers a more fruitful starting point for understanding man’s relationship with nature. The non-local and statistical character of the state-description offers an opportunity to reconsider the subtle relationship between mind and matter. Mental states may be real and scientifically-approachable even if they are not totally identifiable with brain states. Human beings can be reconciled to the natural world without there being any need to restrain their unique character. 4 Contents Preface 1. Introduction 11 2. Formation of the Western Conception of Reality 22 2.1. Natural philosophy in ancient times 24 2.1.1 The Substance of Being 2.1.2. Unchanging reality 2.1.3. The Golden Age of Form 2.1.4. The Significance of Antique Thought for Modern Science 2.2. The Middle Ages and transcendental reality 57 2.3. Birth of the modern scientific-technical paradigm 66 2.3.1. The early pioneers of natural science 2.3.2. Bacon and Descartes as shapers of the modern world-view 2.3.3. Isaac Newton’s synthesis 3. The mechanistic-deterministic conception of reality 92 3.1. Fundamental ontological and epistemological presuppositions 95 3.1.1. Mechanism 3.1.2. Determinism 3.1.3. Atomism and reductionism 3.1.4. The objective nature of theoretical description 3.2. The position of humans in mechanistic-deterministic reality 106 3.2.1. The rise of materialism 3.2.2. Freedom and free will 3.3. Philosophy in the mechanical and deterministic era 113 3.3.1. Materialism versus idealism 3.3.2. Empiricism versus rationalism 3.3.3. Romantic natural philosophy in Germany 3.3.4. Positivism and analytical theory of science 3.4. The crisis in the mechanical and deterministic way of thinking 138 3.4.1. The limitations of classical mechanics in physics 3.4.2. Crisis in the scientific portrayal of the human being 3.4.3. The status of mechanical and deterministic laws 3.4.4. The metaphysical foundation of theoretical constructions 3.5. Hypothetical-deductive development of the conception of reality 154 3.5.1. The conception of reality as a cultural paradigm 3.5.2. Transformation of the conception of reality 3.5.3. Form and content in the thoughts of Niels Bohr 3.5.4. The classical and quantum frames of reference 5 4. Quantum mechanics and renewal of the conception of reality 173 4.1. The birth of quantum theory and its structure 173 4.1.1. Early quantum phenomena 4.1.2. The development of quantum theory 4.1.3. Consequences related to quantum theory 4.2. New features connected with quantum mechanics 190 4.2.1. The complex state vector, observables and properties 4.2.2. Discontinuity and wave-particle dualism 4.2.3. Uncertainty and Complementarity 4.2.4. Unlocality and entanglement 4.2.5. Indeterminism, irreversibility and the measurement problem 4.3. The interpretation of quantum mechanics as a manifestation of change in the conception of reality 215 4.3.1. The Copenhagen Interpretation: Reconstruction of the Classical Frame of Reference 4.3.2. Niels Bohr’s Epistemological Lesson and the Framework of Complementarity 4.3.3. The Relationship between Complementarity and Realism, Pragmatism and Kantian Categories 4.3.4. Later Attempts to Interpret Quantum Mechanics by returning to the Classica Frame of Reference 4.3.5. The concept of Consciousness in Discussons concerning Interpretation 4.3.6. The Problem of Measurement and the Position of the Observer 4.3.7. The Representation of Reality by Bohr and Einstein 5. Conclusions 287 5.1. Quantum mechanics requires a renewal of the mechanistic-deterministic conception of nature 290 5.1.1. Natural Philosophy and the growth of knowledge 5.1.2. Revaluation of the role of the human being 5.2. A New Onto-epistemological framework 299 5.2.1.The abstract reality of state-functions 5.2.2. Embodied representation 5.3. The Human being as an evolutionary agent 310 5.3.1. Transcending the division between Subject and Object 5.3.2. Quantum mechanics and the modelling of our internal states 5.3.3. Psychophysical problem and free will revisited 5.3.4. Observers and Actors – the Role of Consciousness References 339 6 Preface Even when I was at school, I found modern physics interesting. It appeared to me that the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics were part of a search for fundamental and almost incomprehensible profoundities in nature which I wanted to understand better. My studies of particle physics and preliminary examinations of particle collisions in the bubble chamber images at the Helsinki University Department of High Energy Physics offered new insights to the basic natural symmetries controlling composite events: the wild spectrum of particles born out of collisions could only come into being exactly as permitted by a few basic laws of conservation. I learned to trust the precision of the physical method. I had not the slightest doubt that all of the phenomena encountered in nature would, sooner or later, be explainable on the basis of physical laws.
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