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The Nature of Reality: As Illuminated by Quantum Physics and Mathematical Logic
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20000 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1992 |
6,254 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
Although the world cannot be definitively described or understood, there are things that can be said that illuminate it or improve our understanding of its objective characteristics. However, some of those things, such as the character of space-time or particles, are less accessible to ordinary common sense than is commonly believed. In the course of the analysis, I shall analyze the conceptual error that led Erwin Schrodinger to his mistaken analysis of the black cat problem and show that it is his treatment of theoretical notations and theoretical formalisms that produces his mistaken analysis. It is this error that requires his brute-force solution of an absolute distinction between the macroworld and the world of quantum physics. I shall show also how the implications of Kurt Godel's proof in the Entscheidungsproblem--which involves not merely the incompleteness of formal mathematical systems but the incompleteness with which they represent conceptions--refutes the concept of a world in which notations directly represent reality.
My analysis depends upon the philosophical conceptions presented in Science, Language, and the Human Condition. Although it is not necessary for an understanding of the argument in this article, the reader who wishes to know more about my epistemology, my concept of relative neutrality, my distinction between theory and assessment, and my concept of language can turn to that book. It is the triadic relationship between concept, sign, and referent that will play a key role in this analysis. Although I argued that differences in frameworks of reference lead to apparently contradictory but true statements, I showed that these statements, properly understood, are compatible with each other. In part, the development of the argument in this essay is an elaboration of that argument.
I intend here to apply the concepts of that book to some of the puzzles of contemporary physics and to explore their implications--including, briefly, some that affect our understanding of ethics and theology. I operate from a framework that employs terms such as first-order in a way that is different from the usages of physicists and hope that differences in terminology do not impede understanding.
Theory And Realism
Both relativity and quantum theory raise significant questions about the character of reality. According to relativity theory, the first-order determinations--that is, the determinations made from their contextual placement on a particular inertial system--of observers on two independent inertial systems will
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