QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

evaluations of our basic beliefs is significant even though science cannot demonstrate
metaphysical claims to be right or wrong. Science and metaphysics seem however to be
correlated in a way that the error-correcting practices of science do little-by-little make us aware
of the binding metaphysical beliefs which underlie our thinking. 410 If the fundamental
assumptions which have controlled research during the modern era were subsequently found to
be in error, the question would not be one of a defeat for the scientific method, but rather a
victory. The hypothetical-deductive method employed by science would be applicable to address
mistakes in its fundamental presuppositions.
In the following section, I will attempt to investigate what basis there is for supposing that the
conception of reality adopted at the beginning of the modern era really is incorrect. In Section
3.5, the general nature of world-views and the process of their changes are examined in greater
detail. In Chapter 4, the focus is on quantum mechanics and its interpretation: the reasons behind
the birth of the theory; its theoretical structure; and the new features associated with it which
cannot be understood within the frame of reference provided by classical physics. In Section
4.3.4, an attempt is made to prove that the discussion concerning the interpretation of quantum
mechanics can be viewed as a case study which has its basis in the process of change in
conception of reality. 411
3.5. Hypothetical-deductive Development of the Conception of Reality
This section is a closer examination of the nature of our conception of reality and its
development. On the basis of material provided by history and philosophy of science, we ask
whether a conception of reality or a world-view can be understood as some kind of metatheory, a
paradigm which has a wide general effect on culture, and to which the activities and scientific
conceptions of a particular age conform. In such a case, discussion concerning the interpretation
of quantum mechanics which deals with the metaphysical foundations of the conception of
reality can be considered to be an outstanding example of a fundamental paradigm change
410 For example, at the beginning of the 1900s Ernst Mach removed the problem of matter and mind from the
domain of science in his important work Analyse der Empfindungen. He stated that science is ”concerned with
different basic variables and different relations. Neither the facts, nor the functional relations will be changed if we
treat everything as conscious experience or as partly or wholly physical. Granit 1977, 84-85.
411 The interpretation discussion can be viewed in Kuhnian terms. Copenhagen interpretation demanded a radical
renewal of both the accepted conception of reality and the position of human beings, but subsequent attempts at
interpretation have attempted to find a route back to classical conceptions of reality, by postulating a variety of
auxiliary hypotheses.
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