Nowadays modern physics is a highly formalized discipline. It is almost impossible to build a model of the whole reality because physical research requires too much specialization in local areas. Technical difficulties make harder the metaphysical analysis of the investigation. But physics is a powerful path to the very fundamental ontology. Quantum physics developed in the XX century has discovered new physical phenomena that demand a new revision of the classical ontological sets. Actually quantum physics continues improving its potential. In fact there are some heuristic theories that use quantum physics to operate in some research fields of classical human sciences. Certainly our old fashioned model of reality must be open to the last theories of modern physics. We should prepare for developing the new scientificoriented humanism. In this paper we offer seven metaphysical derivations of quantum physics.
Nowadays modern physics is a highly formalized discipline. It is almost impossible to build a model of the whole reality because physical research requires too much specialization in local areas. Technical difficulties make harder the metaphysical analysis of the investigation. But physics is a powerful path to the very fundamental ontology. Quantum physics developed in the XX century has discovered new physical phenomena that demand a new revision of the classical ontological sets. Actually quantum physics continues improving its potential. In fact there are some heuristic theories that use quantum physics to operate in some research fields of classical human sciences. Certainly our old fashioned model of reality must be open to the last theories of modern physics. We should prepare for developing the new scientificoriented humanism. In this paper we offer seven metaphysical derivations of quantum physics.
Nowadays modern physics is a highly formalized discipline. It is almost impossible to build a model of the whole reality because physical research requires too much specialization in local areas. Technical difficulties make harder the metaphysical analysis of the investigation. But physics is a powerful path to the very fundamental ontology. Quantum physics developed in the XX century has discovered new physical phenomena that demand a new revision of the classical ontological sets. Actually quantum physics continues improving its potential. In fact there are some heuristic theories that use quantum physics to operate in some research fields of classical human sciences. Certainly our old fashioned model of reality must be open to the last theories of modern physics. We should prepare for developing the new scientificoriented humanism. In this paper we offer seven metaphysical derivations of quantum physics.
The last century has been a period of extreme interest for scientific research, marked by the overcoming of the classical frontiers of scientific knowledge.Research oriented towards the infinitely small and infinitely big, in both cases beyondthe borders of the visible. Quantum physics has led to a new Copernican revolution,opening the way to new questions that have led to a new view of reality. At the sametime, new theories have developed, involving every field of science, philosophy and art, rediscovering the link between unity and totality and the importance of humanpotential. In a transdisciplinary approach we consider quantum field theory, new ideason the concepts of vacuum and entanglement, metaphysical aspects of quantum revolution and the introduction of different interpretative approaches on the “Whole”.
The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the main philosophical and metaphysical implications of quantum physics, especially those which concern the issues of epistemic humility and ontological realism. My thesis is that the impossibility of reaching an objective knowledge of nature does not imply the renunciation of ontological realism, but rather encourages scientists to adopt an attitude of epistemic humility. The argument firstly presents the main theories of quantum physics currently discussed, focusing on the measurement problem and its ontological implications. Afterwords, the issues of objectivity and realism are properly addressed. In the end, we discuss statistics as the new form of scientific epistemology, along with the concept of potentiality as the fundamental category of quantum metaphysics. Throughout, we establish some parallelisms between quantum physics theories and theology to show that, when human beings investigate the foundations of reality, some thought patterns, some core problems, and some possible solutions resemble one another, regardless of the specific perspective and language with which they are formulated.
Quantum mechanics has maintained over the years the reputation of being "the most obscure theory." It works perfectly well, but nobody seems to know why. It has been argued that the difficulty in understanding quantum theory is our failed attempt to force onto it a wrong conceptual scheme, wanting at all costs to think about the objects of the theory as, precisely, objects, i.e., entities having continuously actual spatiotemporal properties. This too restrictive spatiotemporal scheme is most probably at the heart of the problem, as also underlined by the Einsteinian revolution, but then what could be an alternative? Many thinkers have suggested that we must surrender to the fact that our physical world is one of immanent powers and potencies. Aristotle did so ante quantum litteram, followed by scholars like Heisenberg, Primas, Shimony, Piron, Kastner, Kauffman, de Ronde, just to name a few, including the authors, who were both students of Piron in Geneva. However, if on the one hand a potentiality ontology puts the accent on the processes of change, responsible for the incessant shifts between actual and potential properties, on the other hand it does not tell what these changes are all about. In other words, the metaphysical question remains of identifying the nature of the bearer of these potencies, or potentialities, and of the entities that can actualize them. It is the purpose of the present article to emphasize that the above question has found a possible answer in the recent Conceptuality Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which we believe offers the missing ontology and metaphysics that can make the theory fully intelligible, and even intuitive.
The personal viewpoint of a theoretical physicist about the relation between reality and physical science is exposed, starting from his personal experience in the context of quantum foundations and quantum information theory. The effectiveness of an axiomatic approach is argued as a navigation system between the abstract landscape of quantum theory and the reality of facts, along a road that is intrinsically unaccessible to classical conceptual maps. The present approach requires physics to accept the notion of information at its deepest level, in place of matter and space-time, that are recovered only as an effective description of phenomena on a secondary level. As a result of the above operation, a simplified conceptual scenario is achieved, where new possibilities are available for facing the open challenges of theoretical physics.
Whereas the technological applications of quantum mechanics are extraordinarily abundant, its ontological implications are very controversial. Not only did several interpretations of the original quantum formalism develop throughout the last century, but modifications of the primitive formalism were also proposed, introducing new relevant theoretical elements, which gave rise to very different quantum ontologies. This article highlights that the diversity of quantum ontologies reveals the impossibility of establishing an exclusive inference from the empirical success of a theory and its ontological truth. Since scientific objectifications in general —and those of quantum mechanics in particular— have a limited cognitive scope, they don’t allow choosing a specific interpretation of the theory among the many possible ones, so that meta-scientific criteria are required.