QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

sees the evolution of life as a process of elimination through trial and error, a process which
allows us to understand the emergence of biological novelty and the growth of human knowledge
and human freedom in a rational, though far from complete, manner. 838
Popper’s solution to Compton’s problem yields the view that control of ourselves and our actions
by our theories is a plastic arrangement which combines freedom and control. Conscious states
may function as monitoring systems, as systems which eliminate errors. Rational human
behaviour becomes something intermediate in character between perfect chance and perfect
determinism. As we can discuss our theories in a critical manner, we are not forced to submit
ourselves to their control, and can reject them freely if we think that they fall short of our
regulatory standards. Control is therefore a long way from being one-sided. Not only do our
theories control us, we can also control our theories, and even our standards. This leads to the
conclusion that our mental states control some of our physical movements, and that there is some
interaction, some feedback between mental activity and an organism’s other functions. 839
Although Popper’s qualitative description is credible, it does not offer a proper explanation of
the situation. What is the nature of our mental states or how such control can be physically
understood?
In Popper’s solution, there is an interaction between mind and matter, the mental and physical
states, which means that the physical world cannot be closed. As we have seen, the quantum
framework also allows the Popperian type of solution to Descartes’ and Compton’s problems
when combined with the idea of a closed physical system. If we take the state-function
description seriously enough, the world can be seen as a developing or changing monistic system
to which humans belong and which they shape by their actions. If the abstract wave-function
controls not only the formation of matter but also the formation of mental states, we have proper
tools to deal with both these aspects in the same overall framework. “The predetermined course
of events” could then be interrupted if only we are able to note and affect our own mental states
and act accordingly. It is not necessary for mental states to have a direct causal influence on
matter, only on the reformation of the mental states themselves. If we believe that our
consciousness or will can exert an influence on a reshaping of our mental contents, relative free
will and the idea of lawful reality can be reconciled within the quantum framework. The problem
838 Popper 1972, 232, 254-255. The mind-body problem disappears in Popper’s model, but since he does not trust
physics sufficiently to elaborate quantum states for mental processes, he is not able to further elucidate the
relationship between mental and physical.
839 Popper 1972, 240-241, 250-252.
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