QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

of action requires that the object and the measuring device are dependent on each other. 729
According to these constants, human activity is bound to physical laws and restrictions, to the
human's own ”light cone” or chosen experimental situations. For example, it is not possible for
an observer to send a signal that travels faster than the speed of light, nor to communicate outside
the observer’s own ”light cone”. Relativity theory restricts an observer to a being tied to no more
than a single location at any point in time, therefore relativity theory assumes that the observer
belongs to the world which they are investigating. 730
Even though, as a result of relativity theory, it is no longer possible to propose the existence of
an all-knowing observer who can address the whole world from a single point, it is however
possible to propose the existence of a supreme mathematician who can construct an equation
which provides a complete portrayal of the whole of nature. 731 Bound to physical laws and
restrictions in their lives and in their activity, humans could, in their descriptions, overcome
these limitations and employ reason to reach the eternal and timeless world. Einstein maintained
his belief in classical physics’ objective, independent and invariant description. The human
intellect could discover absolute truth. Believing that theory can address the objective structure
of reality, Einstein trusted, for example, that a quantum systems always have a specific observerindependent
state of reality that can be described using the language of physics. 732
In their portrayals, both classical science and Einstein attempted to go behind the world of
phenomena and reach a world that could be addressed by eternal and timeless logic, one which
has fascinated philosophers since Plato’s time. Bohr, on the other hand, remained quite clearly
(as did Aristotle) in our own world. He did not believe that humans can describe the world
properly from an external viewpoint. All our descriptions are limited projections of the world
which we influence 733 , and through the gathering of knowledge we increasingly shape our
environment. We are engaged in a continuing dialogue with reality. Immersed in the world,
Bohr’s human cannot be a ”spy” who can disappear without leaving any traces.
To both classical physics and Einstein, scientific objectivity meant that subjective elements, the
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Faye 1991, 73.
729
Bohr 1939, 25.
730
Prigogine ja Stengers 1984, 218.
731
Prigogine ja Stengers 1984, 218.
732
Mackinnon 1994, 291-293. Einstein did not believe that there was any logical method of discovering those
universal laws from which the structure of the cosmos could then be deduced in a logical manner. In searching for
proper theories he trusted intuition.
733
Bohr also believed that mathematical theory best reaches reality. When interpreting it, we are however tied to our
macroscopic experience.
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