Philosophy of Physics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Barberousse
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Special Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Physics ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Scientific Terms ◽  
Quantum Phenomena ◽  
Main Thread

Philosophical reflections on physics and its theories have been shaping the agenda of general philosophy of science, including issues such as the nature of scientific theories, the meaning of scientific terms, and scientific modeling. But physics is also well worth being considered a special science of its own, whose methods and tools raised specific questions for philosophers of science: this is the approach followed in this chapter, which has as its main thread the role of mathematics in physical theories. It tackles classical issues concerning measurement and determinism and long-standing controversies in the philosophy of statistical mechanics (how may the reversible laws of mechanics account for the irreversible principles of thermodynamics?) and in the philosophy of quantum physics (does quantum mechanics provide us a with a complete description of quantum phenomena?). It also addresses emerging issues in the field, such as computer simulations and their role between theory and observation.

scholarly journals Why Quantum Correlates of Consciousness Are Fine, But Not Enough

1969 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Vaas
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Measurement Problem ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Explanatory Gap ◽  
Naturalistic Theory ◽  
Quantum Phenomena ◽  
The Mind

The existence of quantum correlates of consciousness (QCC) is doubtful from a scientific perspective. But even if their existence were verified, philosophical problems would remain. On the other hand, there could be more to QCC than meets the sceptic's eye: • QCC might be useful or even necessary for a better understanding of conscious experience or quantum physics or both. The main reasons for this are: the measurement problem (the nature of observation, the mysterious collapse of the wave function, etc.), ostensibly shared features of quantum phenomena and conscious phenomena (e.g., complementarity, nonspatiality, acausality, spontaneity, and holism) and connections (ontology, causation, and knowledge), the qualia problem (subjectivity, explanatory gap etc.). But there are many problems, especially questions regarding realism and the nature and role of conscious observers; • QCC are conceptually challenging, because there are definitory problems and some crucial ontological and epistemological shortcomings. It is instructive to compare them with recent proposals for understanding neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). QCC are not sufficient for a quantum theory of mind, nor might they be necessary except perhaps in a very broad sense; • QCC are also empirically challenging. Nevertheless, QCC could be relevant and important for the mindbody problem: QCC might reveal features that are necessary at least for behavioral manifestations of human consciousness. But QCC are compatible with very different proposals for a solution of the mind-body problem. This seems to be both advantageous and detrimental. QCC restrict accounts of nomological identity. The discovery of QCC cannot establish a naturalistic theory of mind alone. But there are also problems with QCC in the framework of other ontologies.

Quantum Phenomena

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Electron Spin ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Empirical Prediction ◽  
Quantum Randomness ◽  
Spin Properties ◽  
Quantum Phenomena ◽  
Quantum Limits

The behavior of electrons provides several concrete examples of quantum phenomena. We consider electron spin properties, how electrons move, quantum randomness and the relationships between observables, quantum limits on empirical prediction, superpositions, interference effects, nonlocality, and the role of observation in generating quantum phenomena. Each illustrates the counterintuitive nature of quantum phenomena and provides a sense of the sort of phenomena that any satisfactory formulation of quantum mechanics must predict and explain.

scholarly journals The illusion of matter, energy, environmental issues

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Sergei Petrovich Myakinnikov
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Multiple Quantum ◽  
Quantum Field ◽  
Foreign Matter ◽  
Planetary Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Quantum Phenomena

  The subject of this research is the establishment of correlation between the illusion of the world of matter and environmental issues. The object of this research is the concepts of “illusion”, “matter”, and “energy”. The author traces the evolution of representations of the illusion of the world and its perception. The author dwells on the philosophical aspects of quantum physics, questioning the postulates of materialism on the primacy of matter, and acknowledgement of its esthesis by human as the criterion of the only true being. Special attention is given to the role of consciousness in the illusory distortion of matter and quantum field reality, which is substantiated by the complexity of comprehension of multiple quantum phenomena. The author underlines the need for studying the correlation between environmental issues and the processes in quantum field reality. The main conclusion consists in explication of the fact that the material world is perceived delusively by imperfect human sensory receptors, and its very being is somewhat an illusion. For denoting a single substance, the author employs the term “foreign matter”, which implies the imperceptible reality of energy waves of different frequency. A hypothesis of the continual-energy model of atom, which complements the Rutherford discrete-corpuscular planetary model of atom is advanced. The author’s special contribution lies in the statement that the actual causes of many environmental issues should be sought for not in the world of matter, but in the foreign matter of quantum field reality. The novelty consists in the proposal to develop the consciousness of anthropocentrism, naturecentrism, and theocentrism, which prompt the reduction to part (merism), to the whole (holism) or uniform (henotheism) respectively; and the consciousness of post-holism, where the uniform (i.e. energy) is within the whole and each part of the physical world, considering its unique characteristics. It is noted that the worldview of ecocentrism, and ecological version of post-holism form the true environmental picture of the world.  

scholarly journals On philosophy of mind, quantum physics and metaphysics of the uni-multiverse

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Di Sia
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Search For Meaning ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Conceptual Relativism ◽  
The Universe

Metaphysics, as discipline dealing with the most fundamental aspects of reality, studies the essence of entities, leaving to particular sciences the study of empirical, specific, changeable and unstable aspects. In this sense metaphysics is close to ontology, tackling problems as the existence of God, the being in himself, the immortality of consciousness, the origin and meaning of the universe. Speculative physics pushes its interest to metaphysical questions too, both at atechnical (mathematical) level, and at the level of thought (in relation to philosophy). In recentyears interesting concepts and ideas have been considered and developed, involving the latest unified quantum-relativistic theories and the consequences on reality deriving from them.The search for a meaning of life, one of Anscombe’s themes, finds ferment in the search for meaning about the existence of our universe in itself and as a possible part of a multiverse containing it.The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics appears from the application of themathematical formalism to macroscopic situations and the central position of the observer in this process has produced a deviation towards a metaphysical subjectivism. There are controversial aspects about the role of consciousness in the process of reducing the wave function of quantum mechanics. This narrows the field of validity of some fundamental principles during the interaction between microsystems and macrosystems, with consequent diversification of thedefinition of the ontological state of consciousness and reality. (Local) holism has often been linked to Wittgenstein. From Wittgenstein’s answers to the paradoxes of communication and conceptual relativism, a tension emerges in his vision of linguistic games and in his mental experiments, traditionally interpreted in contrasting ways. This tension can be better understoodthrough some reflections by Wittgenstein on Einstein and his theory of relativity.

Coherence, Teleportation, and Open Systems: Comments on Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

2001 ◽  
Vol 08 (01) ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
Roman S. Ingarden
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Philosophical Discussion ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Quantum Phenomena

A physical and philosophical discussion of quantum phenomena of coherence, teleportation and open systems is given. We attempt to show that modern physics can give some impulses for new solutions or new tendencies in philosophy. One of the questions is the problem of what is basic in quantum physics: “substances” or “situations”, the problem of an observer or two observers at least, of a whole and a part, or distributive or collective sets, of particle-wave complementarity, and of modalities such as possibility, necessity, probability, potentiality, etc.

A Preliminary Case for Wave Function Realism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-48
Author(s):  
Alyssa Ney
Keyword(s):  
Wave Function ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Measurement Problem ◽  
Wave Functions ◽  
Philosophy Of Physics ◽  
The Status ◽  
Physics Literature ◽  
Wave Function Realism

This chapter explains the use of wave functions in quantum mechanics in order to develop a preliminary argument for wave function realism, one that is commonly found in the physics and philosophy of physics literature. It distinguishes ontological questions about the status of the wave function from the more discussed measurement problem for quantum mechanics, and explains how wave function realism is an approach to ontology that is compatible with several rival solutions to the measurement problem. The chapter then presents an initial, but not ultimately decisive, argument for wave function realism based on the ubiquity of wave function representations in quantum physics.

The Necessity of Sufficiency

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Structural Realism ◽  
Sufficient Reason ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Ontic Structural Realism ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Principle Of Sufficient Reason ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Quantum Phenomena

There is an argument for the existence of God from the incompleteness of nature that is vaguely present in Plantinga’s recent work. This argument, which rests on the metaphysical implications of quantum physics and the philosophical deficiency of necessitarian conceptions of physical law, deserves to be given a clear formulation. The goal is to demonstrate, via a suitably articulated principle of sufficient reason, that divine action in an occasionalist mode is needed (and hence God’s existence is required) to bring causal closure to nature and render it ontologically functional. The best explanation for quantum phenomena and the most adequate understanding of general providence turns out to rest on an ontic structural realism in physics that is grounded in the immaterialist metaphysics of theistic idealism.

Relational Blockworld and Quantum Mechanics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Silberstein ◽  
W.M. Stuckey ◽  
Timothy McDevitt
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Measurement Problem ◽  
Quantum Nonlocality ◽  
Global Constraints ◽  
Quantum Superposition ◽  
Delayed Choice ◽  
Counterfactual Definiteness ◽  
Main Thread ◽  
Block Universe ◽  
Contextual Emergence

The main thread of chapter 4 introduces some of the major mysteries and interpretational issues of quantum mechanics (QM). These mysteries and issues include: quantum superposition, quantum nonlocality, Bell’s inequality, entanglement, delayed choice, the measurement problem, and the lack of counterfactual definiteness. All these mysteries and interpretational issues of QM result from dynamical explanation in the mechanical universe and are dispatched using the authors’ adynamical explanation in the block universe, called Relational Blockworld (RBW). A possible link between RBW and quantum information theory is provided. The metaphysical underpinnings of RBW, such as contextual emergence, spatiotemporal ontological contextuality, and adynamical global constraints, are provided in Philosophy of Physics for Chapter 4. That is also where RBW is situated with respect to retrocausal accounts and it is shown that RBW is a realist, psi-epistemic account of QM. All the relevant formalism for this chapter is provided in Foundational Physics for Chapter 4.

Randomness and Complexity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven E. Vigdor
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Rna World ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Variable Theory ◽  
Cosmological Natural Selection ◽  
Einstein Podolsky Rosen ◽  
World Hypothesis ◽  
Rna World Hypothesis

Chapter 7 describes the fundamental role of randomness in quantum mechanics, in generating the first biomolecules, and in biological evolution. Experiments testing the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox have demonstrated, via Bell’s inequalities, that no local hidden variable theory can provide a viable alternative to quantum mechanics, with its fundamental randomness built in. Randomness presumably plays an equally important role in the chemical assembly of a wide array of polymer molecules to be sampled for their ability to store genetic information and self-replicate, fueling the sort of abiogenesis assumed in the RNA world hypothesis of life’s beginnings. Evidence for random mutations in biological evolution, microevolution of both bacteria and antibodies and macroevolution of the species, is briefly reviewed. The importance of natural selection in guiding the adaptation of species to changing environments is emphasized. A speculative role of cosmological natural selection for black-hole fecundity in the evolution of universes is discussed.

It Keeps Me Seeking

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Briggs ◽  
Hans Halvorson ◽  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Good Argument ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Relationship Of

Two scientists and a philosopher aim to show how science both enriches and is enriched by Christian faith. The text is written around four themes: 1. God is a being to be known, not a hypothesis to be tested; 2. We set a high bar on what constitutes good argument; 3. Uncertainty is OK; 4. We are allowed to open up the window that the natural world offers us. This is not a work of apologetics. Rather, the text takes an overview of various themes and gives reactions and responses, intended to place science correctly as a valued component of the life of faith. The difference between philosophical analysis and theological reflection is expounded. Questions of human identity are addressed from philosophy, computer science, quantum physics, evolutionary biology and theological reflection. Contemporary physics reveals the subtle and open nature of physical existence, and offers lessons in how to learn and how to live with incomplete knowledge. The nature and role of miracles is considered. The ‘argument from design’ is critiqued, especially arguments from fine-tuning. Logical derivation from impersonal facts is not an appropriate route to a relationship of mutual trust. Mainstream evolutionary biology is assessed to be a valuable component of our understanding, but no exploratory process can itself fully account for the nature of what is discovered. To engage deeply in science is to seek truth and to seek a better future; it is also an activity of appreciation, as one may appreciate a work of art.

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