QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

theories, the fundamental presuppositions of the mechanistic world-view adopted at the turn of
the modern era, could then be discovered to be falsified in principle, even though no amount of
testing can prove that its fundamental assumptions are right any more than any other scientific
theory can, in the final analysis, be proved to be true.
If the conception of reality adopted at the turn of the modern era is thought of as a ”rationally”constructed
research programme, its fundamental ontological and epistemological presumptions
can evidently be set aside if they do not, in the end, yield the hoped-for fruit. The abandonment
of a theoretical research programme, i.e. a ”scientific revolution”, finally takes place when some
competing way of thinking proves itself to be superior. In the final analysis, the ”irrefutable”
core assumptions of a research programme or paradigm are not, therefore, outside the domain of
what can be controlled by experience. The credibility of metaphysical presuppositions
independent of direct experimental verification can therefore be estimated on an a posterior basis
by examining which kind of consequences they generate in the long run. 418
3.5.2. Transformation of the conception of reality
The Greeks believed they were living in a rational and organised reality, in a macro-cosmos in
which the mind was a controlling and directing element contained in all material. The viewpoint
adopted at the turn of the modern era turned this approach upside down. Nature was no longer
seen as spiritual or divine, but as just a mechanical machine without intelligence or life. It not
longer controlled its movements, all movement was decided externally and controlled by natural
laws. This change in thinking could perhaps not have been tolerated without the transitional idea
of a Christian creative and omnipotent God. As the external creator of the world, he could be
believed to have created the order that ruled it. Quite probably, a significant factor in moulding
the new conception of reality was also the new metaphors provided by new technology, such as
the idea of a clock, which once manufactured and adjusted, could be left to do its job. 419
Both the Greek’s organic thinking and the machine-like thinking of the Renaissance can be seen
as analogous by their nature. Since, in antiquity, nature was generally understood to be a living
and harmonious totality, the human micro-cosmos offered a model for the whole macro-cosmos.
418 Niiniluoto 1983, 195-199, 211.
419 Collingwood 1960, 3-8, 102-103.
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