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The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key 3Rd Edition Wolfgang Smith THE QUANTUM ENIGMA Finding the Hidden Key S02HIA PERENNIS HILLSDALE NY CONTENTS Foreword 1 Preface to Third Edition 1 Preface to First Edition 3 I Rediscovering the Corporeal World 7 II What is the Physical Universe? 29 III Microworld and Indeterminacy 52 IV Materia Quantitate Signata 77 v On Whether 'God Plays Dice' 95 VI Vertical Causality 109 Appendix Quantum Theory: A Brief Introduction 127 Glossary 152 Index of names 155 FOREWORD SINCE THE BEGINNING of the development of quantum mechan­ ics, different interpretations have been given as to its meaning not only by physicists, especially Bohr and Einstein, but also by anum­ ber of philosophers. These interpretations have met with little suc­ cess, however, in providing intelligibility for the consequences of what is observed and measured on the experimental level. The present work is the first by a qualified scientist to bring to bear not a rationalistic or empirical philosophy but traditional metaphysics, ontology, and cosmology upon quantum mechanics in order to provide the key for the understanding of the real significance of this basic physical science. The result is one of the most important books to appear on the explanation of modern physics in the light of the eternal truths of the perennial philosophy and on the categor­ ical refutation of the scientism and reductionism that characterizes so much of the current understanding of modern science. The author, who is well known to students in the field of the rela­ tion between religion and science through his early works Cosmos and Transcendence and Teilhardism and the New Religion, as well as his recent The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology, is deeply grounded in traditional metaphysics and theology, especially the school of St Thomas Aquinas. At the same time he is a notable scientist well versed in the intricacies of quantum mechanics. He therefore writes with an authority that shines through the pages of his book, provid­ ing a treatment of the subject that stands at the antipodes of the genre of shallow syntheses between modern physics and oriental metaphysics so common today, and espoused especially by certain currents of what is now referred to as 'The New Religions'. In his preface the author points out that there is in fact no con­ sistent quantum mechanical worldview, despite the remarkable accuracy of predictions on the basis of its theories and models. The situation has become so difficult that it has prompted one recent II THE QUANTUM ENIGMA author to speak of a 'reality marketplace'. It is to discover the authentic worldview to which quantum mechanics points, and that can make possible an intelligible understanding of it, that Prof. Smith set out to write this book. Also provided is a philosophy of quantum mechanics drawn from traditional ontological, cosmological, and metaphysical doc­ trines, replacing the prevalent Cartesianism still underlying modern science despite the many changes quantum mechanics has brought about. By doing so he has removed the contradictions apparent in quantum mechanics as viewed ordinarily, and has made the subject intelligible from the point of view of the philosophia perennis. His clear distinction between the physical and corporeal, which is one of the main contributions of the book, has situated the ontological status of the subject matter of modern physics in the universal hier­ archy of being. He has also freed the prevalent understanding of the corporeal world and the qualitative sciences associated with it over the ages from the stranglehold of a purely quantitative science, and has destroyed once and for all scientistic reductionism, which is one of the pillars of the modern and postmodern worldviews. The Quantum Enigma is of great significance not only for the phi­ losophy of science, but also for the whole domain of human knowl­ edge, and should be disseminated as widely as possible. It marks the first encounter in depth between traditional ontology and quantum mechanics in the mind of a person who is a master in both domains, and is able to provide a metaphysical understanding of modern physics, its achievements and limitations. It is in fact a counter­ weight to so many works which move in the other direction by interpreting millennia! metaphysical teachings of East and West in light of modern physics. The book is clearly written, the technical mathematical treatment of quantum mechanics being confined to an appendix which can be consulted by those with the necessary background. The work itself, however, does not require technical knowledge of mathematical physics but addresses all those who seek an understanding of the world about them and the meaning that modern science has in both explaining a particular dimension of this world and veiling its qualitative aspects from modern man. All those overwhelmed and distraught by reductionism, scientism, and FOREWORD III the excessive pretensions of a purely quantitative science, and who are at the same time aware of both the achievements and ambigu­ ities of quantum mechanics, will be grateful to Wolfgang Smith for having produced a work of exceptional significance in destroying the extravagant claims of scientism, and yet unravelling at the same time the enigma of quantum mechanics in light of perennial doc­ trines which have always provided the means for solving the enig­ mas and riddles of human existence and thought over the ages. SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION 3 version of Chapter 6 I have dropped all reference to big bang cos­ mology and have dealt with the etiological issues directly. After introducing the concept of vertical causality in general terms I pro­ ceed to explain its relevance not only to the phenomenon of state vector collapse, but indeed to quantum mechanics at large. What appears incongruous and bizarre from the customary Cartesian angle of vision turns out now to be precisely what is called for onto­ logically: this is what the train of argument, begun in Chapter 1 and consummated in Chapter 6, brings to light. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION THIS BOOK IS ABOUT QUANTUM PHYSICS, or what has been termed the 'quantum reality' problem. It deals with an enigma that has tantalized physicists, philosophers, and an ever-widening public for decades. The pertinent literature is vast, and it would appear that just about every conceivable avenue of approach to the problem-no matter how seemingly farfetched-has been advo­ cated somewhere and explored. Gone are the days when the author­ ity of physics could be invoked in support of a single established world-view! What has happened is that the pre-quantum scientistic world-view (now termed 'classical') has come to be disavowed 'at the top': by physicists capable of grasping the implications of quan­ tum theory. And this in turn has called forth an abundance of con­ jectured alternatives, competing with one another, as it were, to fill the ontological void-a situation that has prompted one recent author to speak of a 'reality marketplace.' Quantum mechanics, if you will, is a scientific theory in search of a Weltanschauung. The search has been on since 1927.4 as explained in the original version of Chapter 6 remains valid, regardless whether big bang cosmology proves to be factual. 4. The new physics came to birth during the years 1925 and 1926. By the time physicists gathered at Como in 1927 for the International Physics Conference, the foundations of nonrelativistic quantum theory had been laid. It was later during 4 THE QUANTUM ENIGMA Meanwhile the spectacle of a dozen top-ranking scientists pro­ moting twelve different world-views is hardly reassuring; and there is the temptation to conclude that truth is unattainable, or, worse still, that it is relative, a matter simply of personal opinion. What is called for, however, is a closer look at the foundations of scientific thought: at the hidden assumptions that have conditioned our contemporary intellectual perceptions. A modest probe into matters generally ignored suffices to reveal a startling fact: it hap­ pens that every quantum-reality position thus far enunciated hinges upon one and the same ontological presupposition, a tenet which moreover derives from the philosophical speculations of Galileo and Descartes, and which, surprisingly enough, has been sharply and cogently attacked by some of the most eminent philosophers of the twentieth century. It may indeed seem strange that an ontologi­ cal assumption that has thus become suspect, to say the least, should have remained unchallenged throughout the length and breadth of the quantum reality debate;5 but one must remember that the notion of which we speak has become ingrained in the sci­ entific mentality to the point where it can hardly be recognized as a presupposition, let alone as a spurious premise that must go. My fundamental claim can now be stated quite simply: Remove this error, expose this virtually ubiquitous assumption as the fallacy it is, and the pieces of the quantum puzzle begin to fall into place. The very features of quantum theory, in fact, which, prior to this ontological rectification had seemed the most incomprehensible, prove now to be the most enlightening. As might be surmised, these features bear witness, on a technical level, to an ontological fact, a truth which had hitherto been obscured. the same year, when physicists met again in Brussels for the Fifth Solvay Confer­ ence, that the quantum debate erupted in full force, so to speak, in the form of the· celebrated Bohr-Einstein exchange. 5. The lone exception appears to be the case of Werner Heisenberg. But whereas Heisenberg has occasionally questioned the offending premise, and has gone so far as to suggest that it may be the main cause of incomprehension among physicists, his own interpretation of quantum theory, as we shall see, presupposes this tenet nonetheless.
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