QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

Classical physics concentrated primarily on the discovery of effective causes and has regarded
the Aristotlean emphasis on formal and final causes as unnecessary. By rejecting the idea that the
same happening can be influenced by different causes, Newtonian thinking is not necessarily
able to address all the movements and change phenomena that Aristotle observed. Neither is it
able ask questions concerning the internal nature or essence of things or of different kinds of
possibilities that nature might contain. The classical paradigm of science stripped all meaning,
intention, and values from mechanical and deterministic reality.
Even though the differential formulas of Newtonian science were superior in describing and
predicting phenomena involving the movement of macroscopic bodies, one can ask whether
these laws only applied to the world of “dead matter” postulated by the pre-Socratics and which
was the subject of criticism by Plato and Aristotle. Even though the mechanistic-deterministic
conception of reality has developed into something which is essentially taken as self-evident
among the educated public, modern science has not really advanced either the explanation of life
or consciousness or our understanding of them. The relationship between man and his natural
environment has proved difficult to conceptualize and the advent of quantum mechanics has
rewealed deep flaws in the basic foundation of the way of thinking adopted at the beginning of
the modern era. Difficulties in the interpretion of quantum mechanics have resulted in problems
with the particle-mechanics way of thinking coming to the fore. For example, using modern
physics as his basis, Niels Bohr criticised the Atomists in very much the same way as Plato and
Aristotle. “The discovery of the elementary quantum of action revealed a feature of wholeness
inherent in atomic processes which goes far beyond the ancient idea of the limited divisibility of
matter.” 124
Criticism by Plato and Aristotle of Atomist thinking finds support when surveying modern
research into elementary particles. This has proved Democritus’ assumption that atoms are
eternal to be incorrect. The smallest building blocks of matter are not eternal and indestructible
units of material but can be destroyed in collisions and change into one another within the limits
set by the laws of conservation. As will be explained in more detail in sections 4.3. and 5.3. of
this thesis, more detailed investigation of these smallest building blocks showed they can only be
“accurately” described with the help of a mathematical probability function. This ‘wave
function’ appears to be some kind of form or pattern that offers the possibilities which may, in
our reality, become actual. The emphasis on mathematical form in modern physics leads to the
124 Bohr 1963, 2.
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