Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 127. October 18, 2022
Potential vs Actual
Potential Being vs Actual Doing
Modern Quantum physics seemed to be absurd & unreal by comparison to the Classical physics of Newton. So, the Copenhagen Interpretation of Bohr was intended to reconcile the ontological problems raised by such quantum quandaries as superposition & non-locality and the uncertainty of position/velocity. Then, Werner Heisenberg explained the counter-intuitive nature of quantum physics in terms of "a subjective element in the description of atomic events, since the measuring device has been constructed by the observer, and we have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning". Or, as Kant noted, we never know the ding an sich [thing itself] but only our mediated perception of the thing.
Physicist John A. Wheeler described that "breakdown of the classical divide" between Real & Ideal, or Potential & Actual, in terms of a "participatory universe"⁴, in which the observer is a ["self reflexive"] part of the thing observed. Some have interpreted that participation to mean that the observer, "contrary to classical intuition", creates his own version of Reality. I wouldn't take that notion literally -- as Many Worlds proponents do -- but it might help to think of it as an as-if model of "complementary reality" as Bohr put it. It's a way to see both sides of the real/ideal coin simultaneously.
We'll just have to get used to the idea of two kinds of existence : Real (particular ; physical ; objective) and Ideal (holistic ; potential ; subjective). Warning, some won't like the metaphysical implications of this duality of Energy & Matter. Yet, gods & ghosts are un-real mental phenomena, instead of real physical objects. Whether such ideas have actual causal functions in the real world can be determined by empirical & statistical methods. Although some just take it for granted.
End of Blog Post 127
4. Participatory Universe : Man is “entangled” in this “participatory universe”. And so, it follows, as Wheeler asserted, that the “laws” of the functioning of the Universe (physics) make man's participation in the flow of events – in the observable material reality – a given. . . . physics gives rise to observer-participancy, which results in information, which gives rise to physics. https://medium.com/@tarek_osman/our-participatory-universe-ce640fed6585
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