QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

observational knowledge of atomic reality, or objectify macroscopic observations in such a
simple way as is classically assumed, we do carry out realistic investigations into existing
processes and are able to shape inter-subjectively valid scientific knowledge on the basis of
observations we have made. In this way, the Copenhagen group preserved the realistic basic
starting points employed by classical physics, according to which humans can, step by step, form
an ever more truthful concept of the world. Achieving this target did however required
abandonment of the basic presupposition of classical physics approach, i.e. that the whole of
reality can, without exception, be described as observer-independent phenomena that can be
treated in an objective and intuitive manner in space-time. In spite of its ”common sense”
illustrative character, the mechanistic way of thinking, in which reality is considered to be made
up of separate parts and objects for research, was considered to be inadequate.
Discovery of the quantum of action meant that the centuries old tradition of an objective
description of nature had to be renewed. The illusion of a predictable autonomous external
world broke down at the micro level. In our inquiries, we do not meet nature as it is, as an
independent objective reality. Quantum mechanics does not allow for the possibility of making
observations without reference to the observer or to the means of observation and thus we are
investigating nature as it appears to us; in our examination we should be aware of our own
influence in shaping reality. Werner Heisenberg connected this problem to the indisputable fact
that natural science is formed by men. He supposed that natural science does not simply describe
and explain nature as it is, but is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves, describing
nature as exposed to our method of questioning, which means that when investigating nature, we
also encounter ourselves. 588 Niels Bohr often declared the same thing by saying that humans are
not just observers but also actors on the stage of life. The reality that we examine is also subject
to our influence.
Failure of the familiar objective way of examining nature led the Copenhagen group into
philosophically inaccurate and badly chosen utterances, such as the claim that research does not
reach nature as it is, only as mere interaction between it and the observer. 589 This does not
however make the Copenhagen interpretation significantly subjective, it rather means that
humans do not have an absolutely external monitoring point from which it is possible to observe
the world as it is. Sometimes, Heisenberg expressed the new situation by saying that the
587
Heisenberg 1955, 18-28.
588
Heisenberg 1955, 18-21. Heisenberg 1961, 12-13. Heisenberg 1962, 81.
589
March 1948, 15-16.
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