Twenty-Five Centuries of Quantum Physics: From Pythagoras to Us, and from Subjectivism to Realism

Patrick A. Heelan

Rosa Maria Mayorga

Abstract Metaphysicians and physicists both share the proud desire to understand the world and all the things in it, to fully comprehend the nature of reality. Almost one hundred years after it was proposed, quantum theory has radically transformed the science of physics, inviting a conception of reality that is drastically at odds with our most rooted metaphysical convictions. A scientist and metaphysician extraordinaire, Charles Peirce (1839–1914) was singularly poised to recognize some of the “metaphysical prejudices” about the world that quantum theory, developed years later, has revealed. This chapter proposes to trace how Peirce’s realism, inspired by the thirteenth-century Franciscan monk John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308) and adapted for a reconceived scientific metaphysics, parallels some of the familiar enigmas posed by quantum physics in the early twenty-first century.

Stephen G. Brush

The establishment of the Heisenberg-Schrodinger quantum mechanics in 1926 was undoubtedly the most important event m the history of twentieth-century science - for science itself, even if not for society. One might therefore suppose that the metaphysical conclusions associated with quantum mechanics are a major part of our present view of the world The purpose of this paper is to show that two of these conclusions - indeterminism, and the denial of independent reality to atomic properties - are not unique to quantum mechanics, but emerged as the culmination of historical trends begun m the nineteenth century It postulates cyclic oscillation between 'Romantic' and 'Realist' periods m science and culture, and ascribes a gradual breakdown of belief in determinism to debates about irreversibility. Albert Einstein's opposition to the 'Copenhagen Interpretation' of quantum mechanics was based on a preference for realism as much as a dislike for indeterminism, and the 'Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox' was a formidable challenge to subjectivist instrumentalism. Following the revival of realist interpretations m the 1950s, new experiments seem to have reconfirmed the subjectivist view But there is currently strong disagreement on what kind of subjectivism is scientifically legitimate; John Wheeler's version of the 'anthropic principle' and parapsychological explanations both conflict with the naive realism that has dominated the Western Intellectual tradition since the seventeenth century.

Aage Petersen

Hendrik B. G. Casimir

Hongfang Li

Schrdinger's cat paradox is superficial look like a philosophical problem in quantum mechanics,actually involves some debates of the basic philosophical problems in the studies of philosophy of science,such as subjectivism vs.objectivism,realism vs.anti-realism.In the recent years,the progress in the studies of Schrdinger's cat paradox have made the cat entanglement state and its decoherence effect become no longer debatable instead observable behavior of physical world,which prompts the studies of basic philosophical problems involved quantum theory among different philosophical school.