The Subject of Quantum Mechanics in Comparison with Kant"s Critical Subject and Husserl"s Phenomenological Subject - A reinforcement of the Western metaphysical tradition or its problematization? -

2017 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 129-162
Author(s):  
Yusuk Lee
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Metaphysical Tradition

Quantum Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Uncertainty Principle ◽  
Quantum Spin ◽  
Quantum States ◽  
Wave Functions ◽  
Symbolic Representations ◽  
Quantum Numbers ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

The subject of Chapter 8 is the fundamental principles of quantum theory, the abstract extension of quantum mechanics. Two of the entities explored are kets and operators, with kets being representations of quantum states as well as a source of wave functions. The quantum box and quantum spin kets are specified, as are the quantum numbers that identify them. Operators are introduced and defined in part as the symbolic representations of observable quantities such as position, momentum and quantum spin. Eigenvalues and eigenkets are defined and discussed, with the former identified as the possible outcomes of a measurement. Bras, the counterpart to kets, are introduced as the means of forming probability amplitudes from kets. Products of operators are examined, as is their role underpinning Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. A variety of symbol manipulations are presented. How measurements are believed to collapse linear superpositions to one term of the sum is explored.

scholarly journals Metaphysical Anthropocentrism, Limitrophy, and Responsibility: An Explication of the Subject of Animal Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Jan-Harm De Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Traditional Model ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Metaphysical Tradition ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article undertakes a critical analysis of subjectivity and exposes the metaphysical and anthropocentric quasi-transcendental conditions that give rise to the construct(ion) of the Subject. I locate a critical moment for the metaphysical Subject in the work of Martin Heidegger which, whilst sadly not sustained in his later writings, provides a point of departure for an examination of the significance that animality plays in the metaphysical tradition and its constitutive relation to the construct of subjectivity. I discern this relation to be violent and sacrificial and draw on Jacques Derrida's nonanthropocentric ethics against the background of Drucilla Cornell's ethical reading of deconstruction to construct a critique of approaches that assimilate animals to the traditional model of subjectivity in order to represent their identity and interests in the legal paradigm. The main argument that I seek to advance is that such an approach paradoxically re-constructs the classical humanist subject of metaphysics and re-establishes the subject-centred system that silences the call of the animal Other, thereby solidifying and extending the legitimacy of a discourse and mode of social regulation that is fundamentally anthropocentric. I examine how we can address, incapacitate and move beyond this schemata of power through a rigorous deconstruction of the partitions that institute the Subject and how deconstruction clears a space for a de novo determination of the animal "subject" that can proceed from different sites of nonanthropocentric interruption. What follows is a call to refuse the mechanical utilisation of traditional legal constructs and I argue in favour of an approach to the question of the animal (in law) that identifies and challenges anthropocentrism as its critical target. I ultimately propose a critical engagement with the underlying metaphysical support of animal rights at a conceptual level, rather than simply utilising the law pragmatically as an instrument of immediate resolution.    

6. Synthesis

2016 ◽  
pp. 110-132
Author(s):  
William H. Brock
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Chemical Industry ◽  
Big Science ◽  
Artificial Materials ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Japan And China ◽  
Coal To Oil

‘Synthesis’ considers how the shape and scale of chemistry has been transformed since the start of the 20th century. A series of world wars; a shift from coal to oil as the feedstock for the chemical industry; the introduction of physical instrumentation, quantum mechanics, and electronic theories; the organization of academia and industry to create Big Science as opposed to the more individualized research of previous centuries; a shift from European dominance of the subject to the US and then Russia, Japan, and China; and more women joining the profession have all been important. Underlying these changes was the theme of synthesis of natural chemicals and the creation of artificial materials.

The Changing Views of a Philosopher of Chemistry on the Question of Reduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Scerri
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Mathematical Theory ◽  
Approximate Solutions ◽  
Electron Systems ◽  
Atomic Systems ◽  
Quantum Mechanical Description ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Relationship

The question of the reduction of chemistry to quantum mechanics has been inextricably linked with the development of the philosophy of chemistry since the field began to develop in the early 1990s. In the present chapter I would like to describe how my own views on the subject have developed over a period of roughly 30 years. A good place to begin might be the frequently cited reductionist dictum that was penned in 1929 by Paul Dirac, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. . . . The underlying laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a larger part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that exact applications of these laws lead to equations, which are too complicated to be soluble. (Dirac 1929) . . . These days most chemists would probably comment that Dirac had things backward. It is clear that nothing like “the whole of chemistry” has been mathematically understood. At the same time most would argue that the approximate solutions that are afforded by modern computers are so good as to overcome the fact that one cannot obtain exact or analytical solutions to the Schrödinger equation for many-electron systems. Be that as it may, Dirac’s famous quotation, coming from one of the creators of quantum mechanics, has convinced many people that chemistry has been more or less completely reduced to quantum mechanics. Another quotation of this sort (and one using more metaphorical language) comes from Walter Heitler who together with Fritz London was the first to give a quantum mechanical description of the chemical bond. . . . Let us assume for the moment that the two atomic systems ↑↑↑↑ . . . and ↓↓↓↓ . . . are always attracted in a homopolar manner. We can, then, eat Chemistry with a spoon. (Heitler 1927) . . . Philosophers of science eventually caught up with this climate of reductionism and chose to illustrate their views with the relationship with chemistry and quantum mechanics.

On the application of quantum mechanics to mortality tables

1942 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-258
Author(s):  
R. D Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Wave Mechanics ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Almost All

If you have had your attention directed to the novelties in thought in your own lifetime, you will have observed that almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced. Prof. A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World.1. Quantum Mechanics is a portentous name; the alternative—Wave Mechanics—is almost as bad. The mathematics are formidable, the literature large and growing rapidly, and the subjectmatter dealt with is the behaviour of physical things, such as electrons, protons, atoms, and so on. Why, then, should actuaries as such take any interest in the subject?

scholarly journals From scalar field theories to supersymmetric quantum mechanics

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 1750073 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Bazeia ◽  
F. S. Bemfica
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Scalar Field ◽  
Field Model ◽  
Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Field Theories ◽  
Quantum Mechanical ◽  
Scalar Field Theory ◽  
Scalar Field Model ◽  
The Subject

In this work, we report a new result that appears when one investigates the route that starts from a scalar field theory and ends on a supersymmetric quantum mechanics. The subject has been studied before in several distinct ways and here, we unveil an interesting novelty, showing that the same scalar field model may describe distinct quantum mechanical problems.

scholarly journals The Hand Extending Beyond the Cosmos: Discussions on the Khalā’ [Void] Between the Baṣran and Baghdād Schools of Mu’tazila

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Ahmet Mekin Kandemir
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Metaphysical Tradition

We can find the origins of the notion of void in the Kalām tradition’s recognition of atomism. However, the main debates on the subject appeared after the Greek philosophical heritage transitioned to the Islamic world in the 3 rd century of Hijra. The literature of Kalām, just as in the metaphysical tradition, has two main types for this void being discussed. The first one is the external void (extracosmic) in which the cosmos floats. In the sources of Kalām, the question of whether such a type of void exists is debated around the questions of whether anyone who might look beyond the cosmos can see anything or whether someone who stretches their hand outside the cosmos can move it. The second type of void, which occupies more of the mutakallimūn (Muslim theologians) agenda, is the internal void (intercosmic), assumed to be within the cosmos and between the body-forming atoms. This kind of void is discussed around the question of “Whether separating the two atoms is possible so that a third one can be inserted between them?” An ongoing discussion on the intercosmic void is found between the Baṣran and Baghdād Schools of Mu’tazila. Ibn Mattawayh and al-Nīsābūrī narrated the evidence presented in these discussions in their original form. The current essay discusses the debates between the two Schools and assesses the theoretical and experimental arguments both Schools present to justify their viewpoints, considering their philosophical origins.

Reply to the comment by Amano on “Linear and bent triatomic molecules are not qualitatively different!”

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Per Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Moment Of Inertia ◽  
Molecular Axis ◽  
Linear Molecule ◽  
Triatomic Molecule ◽  
Expectation Value ◽  
Triatomic Molecules ◽  
Average Value ◽  
The Subject

In Amano’s comment on Jensen’s paper, we notice two important misconceptions: (i) Amano overlooks the fact that all features special for a linear molecule originate in the double degeneracy in the bending motion (i.e., in the fact that for a linear triatomic molecule, the description of the bending motion must necessarily also involve the rotation about the axis of least moment of inertia, the a axis, which becomes the molecular axis at equilibrium), and (ii) the expectation value generated from the wavefunction gives an “average” value of the relevant observable (coordinate); the expectation value can, in principle, be obtained experimentally as the average of very many repeated measurements of the observable. In our previous papers on this subject, in particular the paper by Jensen discussed here, we have attempted to explain our results as coherently and “pedagogically” as we can, starting with the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, and we encourage interested readers to refer to our previous works on the subject. Thus, we maintain our assertion that the vibrationally averaged structure of a linear molecule is observed as being bent, as we have demonstrated previously from both theoretical and experimental viewpoints.

Do atomic electrons fall to the center of multi-electron atoms?

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (07) ◽  
pp. 1650082
Author(s):  
E. B. Manoukian
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
Direct Derivation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Atomic Electrons

This communication is involved in providing, via a modern approach, a direct derivation that, with 100% probability, none of the atomic electrons falls to the center of multi-electron atoms — a problem which has been around historically in the quantum mechanics of atoms since the birth of the former and has, undoubtedly, come across every learner of the subject since then. No need arises for explicit eigenfunctions.

The subject matter of quantum mechanics

1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 1615-1625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Drieschner
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
The Subject
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