Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...

11.4. PLANCK: LAST CLASSIC FIRST MODERN 59
11.4 Planck: Last Classic First Modern
Planck never felt comfortable with the new quantum mechanics magically
emerging from the Aladdin lamp he had touched:
• The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation
of every scientific enquiry.
• The quantum hypothesis will eventually find its exact expression in certain
equations which will be a more exact formulation of the law of
causality.
• Hitherto the principle of causality was universally accepted as an indispensable
postulate of scientific research, but now we are told by some
physicists that it must be thrown overboard. The fact that such an extraordinary
opinion should be expressed in responsible scientific quarters
is widely taken to be significant of the all-round unreliability of
human knowledge. This indeed is a very serious situation.
Planck died in 1947 and with him the skeptic rationality of classical physics,
according the Darwinian evolution of science:
• A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and
making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually
die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
Modern physics had won the battle (with the help of some bombs), and was
ready to take over.
11.5 Contradiction as Duality
Modern physics contains contradictions, which are handeled by Orwellian
doublespeak twisting unacceptable contradiction into acceptable:
• wave-particle duality,
• complementarity,
which fits Orwell’s description of doublethink: