QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

comprehensive paradigm, the ”confinement” that results from the classical paradigm of science
has been difficult to overcome as long as the way of thinking that supports it has offered a
framework for the onward march of research.
By believing that the world is an complicated clockwork mechanism, humans have manipulated
the world with the help of simplified reductionistic models which are formed by dividing reality
into separated and individual constituents for research. In recent decades, many of the difficulties
connected with scientific-technical development such as environmental problems and people’s
growing feelings of emptiness and lack of purpose have attracted increasing criticism. Some
have blamed science for these problems, even though they would be better interpreted as
products of the limitations of the mechanistic-deterministic concept of reality, anomalies which
are unintentional results. The unexpected consequence of these manifestations can be taken as an
indication of the inadequacy of the ruling conception of reality. When an operation designed in
accordance with a specific set of beliefs and models results in consequences that the model does
not predict, it may be that we become conscious of the deficiencies or limitations of our
portrayals and theories. Through increased knowledge and by acknowledging the basis for our
problems, models can be renewed and we can attempt to create ever-better and morecomprehensive
theories of the processes that comprise reality. Only by creating portrayals,
models and explanations can we little by little become aware of limitations in them and obtain a
better conception of our position and our possibilities in the world. 767
The more-than-century-old debate concerning the interpretation of quantum mechanics has
repeatedly precipitated questioning of the foundations for our conception and description of
reality. Why are the new features of quantum theory so difficult to understand? Can reality be
fundamentally divided into distinct objects which are independent of the observing subject?
What do the statistical nature and complexity of natural laws signify? 768 Since these fundamental
questions concerning the nature of knowledge and reality, questions long believed to have been
satisfactorily answered, have once again become a subject of discussion, it is reasonable to claim
that we are living in the middle of a crisis concerning the conception of reality. On the basis of
767
As discussed in Section 3.5. our conception of reality has historically evolved through relatively abrupt changes
involving major metaphysical reconsideration. Even if our descriptions - which presumably reflect out experience,
our structure and our language as well as ourenvironment - change with new evidence, at their best they are not at all
subjective. At the same time, these descriptions and theories and the world-views based on them are tentative and
can be viewed, in an anthropological sense, as myths or narratives. We are not able to see how we are imprisoned by
these models until an adequate amount of new experience allows us to overcome former beliefs.
768
The positivist attitude in philosophy that concentrates on language rather than ontology has also prolonged
interpretation discussions.
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