QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

of a collision was not an object but a form which energy could take and which we then observed
as being a material object. In this way, the most important aspect of research into nature ceased
to be a material object and became mathematical symmetry. Energy was not just the force which
kept everything moving, it was like fire in the philosophy of Heraclitus – the fundamental
substance out of which the world is made. 739
Max Born also emphasised mathematical forms or structures: in his opinion, particles were not
something that could in a Kantian manner be thought of as having substance. Schrödinger, who
considered waves to be more important than particles, also joined this discussion. He thought of
the accurately-specified masses and charges of particles as nothing more than gestalt-elements
specified by wave equations. Individual particles were of no significance. They were not
identifiable as individuals since the same particle could never be observed twice, nor could a
specific electron, even in principle, be considered to be labelled without resulting in errors in
calculation. On the other hand, it was easy to leave a permanent trace in wave structures which
could be observed more than once. 740 At same time as the illusion of the objective reality of
elementary particles in a peculiar way disappeared, it did not, however, disappear by being
hidden behind some unclear misty veil of a new concept of reality: it was lost to the transparency
of mathematical clarity. 741
How should the ever-more-important mathematical structures and symbols then be understood?
Max Born believed that symbols were not just a convenient way of shortening presentations, but
an essential component of the method of penetrating to physical reality which lies behind
phenomena. Through its increasingly mathematical methods and its abandonment of observable
models, physics had gained the ability to handle an even larger collection of real phenomena.
Mathematical constructions give humans the ability to achieve a better understanding of reality,
since physics links observable phenomena to the hidden structures of pure thought. A
mathematical formula is a symbol of some kind of reality behind everyday experience. Born had
no hesitation in identifying these well-specified constructions as Kantian things ”as such”. They
are images of the world behind phenomena, pure forms. Nevertheless, the structures are in no
way empty or pallid abstractions separated from the world, as can easily be concluded from their
738 March 1957, 117-122.
739 Heisenberg 1958, 15-19, 31. In spite of his stress on forms, Heisenberg did not want to abandon the modern
materialism of the 19th century in an off-hand manner. It had provided much important information which was
lacking in antiquity.
740 Schrödinger 1961, 53-56. The theory demands that all the states achieved by changing the positions of identical
particles must be counted as one. The results thus agree with observations.
741 Heisenberg 1955, 12.
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