Realizing Social Unity in Africa: Insight from Three (3) Relational Models in Quantum Physics Abstract The paper examines three (3) Relational Models in Quantum Physics. It notes that there exists in quantum reality an intercultural supposition of a ‘deep and shared understanding’ that can birth a new metaphysics and model for social relation in a multi-cultural nation state. The paper consider and reject the postures of Postmodernism as destructive. It discusses how postmodernist tendencies impact social relation, and show why the discourse of social relation can best situate in Quantum Physics and not Classical Physics and Postmodernism. The supposition is that (unlike in Classical Physics and even Postmodernism), Quantum bits possesses the capacity to relate internally. This is encouraged as such as its concern is the sort of laws which governs collection of events. It concludes by encouraging a wider sense of self-awareness as to recognize and explore such quantum structures latent in the human person for social unity.
Realizing Social Unity in Africa: Insight from Three (3) Relational Models in Quantum Physics Abstract The paper examines three (3) Relational Models in Quantum Physics. It notes that there exists in quantum reality an intercultural supposition of a ‘deep and shared understanding’ that can birth a new metaphysics and model for social relation in a multi-cultural nation state. The paper consider and reject the postures of Postmodernism as destructive. It discusses how postmodernist tendencies impact social relation, and show why the discourse of social relation can best situate in Quantum Physics and not Classical Physics and Postmodernism. The supposition is that (unlike in Classical Physics and even Postmodernism), Quantum bits possesses the capacity to relate internally. This is encouraged as such as its concern is the sort of laws which governs collection of events. It concludes by encouraging a wider sense of self-awareness as to recognize and explore such quantum structures latent in the human person for social unity.
Quantum physics can be understood as an epistemological rupture that transforms the foundations of modern scientific rationality. In contrast to the Newtonian mechanistic worldview that underpinned universalist notions of progress, objectivity, and control, quantum mechanics introduces uncertainty, contextuality, non-locality, and the constitutive role of observation into scientific knowledge. These features destabilize the image of reality as a unified, hierarchically structured, and fully transparent domain, thereby challenging the epistemic premises of Western universalism. At the cultural level, this rupture finds expression in forms of scientific magical realism, where the quantum world appears as strange, paradoxical, elusive and fundamentally ungraspable. Such representations allow the quantum revolution to be interpreted not only as a theoretical breakthrough in physics but as an internal epistemological transformation of modern rationality itself. The issue is not the abandonment of rationality, but the reconfiguration of its foundations: the acknowledgment of uncertainty, contextuality, and the participatory role of the observer as structural features of knowledge. This shift is comparable to the epistemological tensions identified by postcolonial theory in situations where hegemonic discourses encounter forms of knowledge that cannot be reduced to their universalist logic. In this sense, quantum physics emerges as a form of internal epistemological alterity within Western science: while remaining part of its canon, it simultaneously rearticulates its ontological assumptions and limits its claim to constitute the sole normative regime of rationality. Extending quantum logic into social theory enables a shift from mechanistic social ontology toward a quantum social ontology, in which relationality, co-constitution, and process take precedence over fixed entities and linear causality. This transformation unfolds as a form of passive revolution, in the Gramscian sense: a profound ontological reorientation achieved not through the destruction of disciplinary institutions, but through their gradual conceptual reconfiguration. The epistemological outcome of this shift is the pluralization of knowledge and the emergence of a pluriversal onto-epistemological horizon, where scientific rationality becomes compatible with multiple cosmologies and situated ways of knowing. In this sense, the quantum turn opens a pathway toward the decolonization of knowledge and the rethinking of global order beyond universalist epistemic hierarchies.
Purpose This work examines assumptions of positivism and the traditional scientific method. Design/methodology/approach Insights from quantum mechanics are explored especially as they relate to method, measurement and what is knowable. An argument is made that how social scientists, particularly sociologists, understand the nature of “reality out there” and describe the social world may be challenged by quantum ideas. The benefits of utilized mixed methods, considering quantum insights, cannot be overstated. Findings It is the proposition of this work that insights from modern physics alter the understanding of the world “out there.” Wheeler suggested that the most profound implication from modern physics is that “there is no out there” (1982; see also Baggott, 1992). Grappling with how modern physics may alter understanding in the social sciences will be difficult; however, that does not mean the task should not be undertaken (see Goswami, 1993). A starting point for the social sciences may be relinquishing an old mechanistic science that depends on the establishment of an objective, empirically based, verifiable reality. Mechanistic science demands “one true reality – a clear-cut reality on which everyone can agree…. Mechanistic science is by definition reductionistic…it has had to try to reduce complexity to oversimplification and process to statis. This creates an illusionary world…that has little or nothing to do with the complexity of the process of the reality of creation as we know, experience, and participate in it” (Goswami, 1993, pp. 64, 66). Research limitations/implications Many physicists have popularized quantum ideas for others interested in contemplating the implications of modern physics. Because of the difficulty in conceiving of quantum ideas, the meaning of the quantum in popular culture is far removed from the parent discipline. Thus, the culture has been shaped by the rhetoric and ideas surrounding the basic quantum mathematical formulas. And, over time, as quantum ideas have come to be part of the popular culture, even the link to the popularized literature in physics is lost. Rather, quantum ideas may be viewed as cultural formations that take on a life of their own. Practical implications The work allows a critique of positivist method and provides insight on how to frame qualitative methodology in a new way. Social implications The work utilizes popularized ideas in quantum theory: the preeminent theory that describes all matter. Little work in sociology utilizes this perspective in understanding research methods. Originality/value Quantum insights have rarely been explored in highlighting limitations in positivism. The current work aims to build on quantum insights and how these may help us better understand the social world around us.
The intention of this paper is not to build quantum metaphysics but to justify the possibility of a second game through interpreting the ideas, concepts and visions from actual physics with ideas and visions borrowed from physics of the Orient. We are aware that quantum metaphysics is far from Abhinavagupta’s metaphysics. After Culianu we introduce both visions in a deforming grid to build a new ideational universe. This ideational universe is a transmodern construction, which tends to become topical in the context of transdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity prevalence. Characterization of thinking as theory and determination of knowledge as a theoretical approach takes place in a inwardly beginning of the technical interpretation of thinking. There is an attempt to keep a sense of reason independently towards action. Philosophy is always in the critical situation to justify its existence to science. The safest way to do this is by self-establishing itself as science. But this effort represents the sacrifice of the essence of knowledge: “in the technical interpretation of thinking, the being as self element of thinking is sacrificed (Hidegger, 1988:314)”. To look positively to philosophy as a dodge of science from metaphysics proves not only destructive to philosophy but also harmful to science. Absolute objectivity claims are increasingly refuted by the development of the cognitive approach. Not only social and human sciences require subjectivity as a dimension of objective knowledge, but physics itself considered the hard part of science reaches to formulate indeterminacy (uncertainty) principles. A new perspective that might be required in the philosophy of science is to look at it as to a semiotics of cognitive act.
Introduction The central claim of this book is that all intentional phenomena are quantum mechanical. That goes both for the private thoughts inside our heads and for public or collective intentions like norms, culture, and language, which we might generically call institutions. I suggested in Chapter 1 that by virtue of their dependence on consciousness, a classical, materialist ontology cannot explain these phenomena, and as such from that perspective they must be epiphenomenal or illusions. In the rest of this book I show that a quantum, panpsychist ontology can provide a physical basis for what we all know to be true, which is that both private and collective intentions are part of the natural order. The elementary parts of social ontology are human beings in their biological individuality, which in this Part I consider in abstraction from their lived social contexts. By taking humans out of their natural habitat I aim to focus attention on what we bring to the social table simply by virtue of being organisms of a certain kind. The abstract individual is a common enough starting point in classical social theory (think Hobbes and the state of nature). However, it might seem an odd place to begin a quantum social theory, given the holism of quantum phenomena, both “all the way down” in having no elementary parts, and “all the way across” in universal non-locality. What look like separate organisms are just local decoherence effects of quantum fields; everything really is related to everything else. In that light the abstract individual appears not just as an abstraction, but as positively occluding what “the individual” really is. However, there is a difference between what is true of a universal ontology and what is practically relevant to specifically socialontologies, which are constrained by the properties of their constituent organisms. Unlike some organisms, humans live in highly interdependent societies, and most of what is interesting about us is socially constituted as well.
Abstract Social positioning theory, or an account of the human individual that it grounds, qualifies as a quantum social theory. This is an assessment that I explain and defend in the paper. It is of interest in that, in a world where increasing numbers are seeking to construct quantum social theories, it serves to help demonstrate that this goal can be achieved without giving up on meeting criteria like explanatory intelligibility or power or discarding real‐world notions like human (and other) entities. As it turns out, a central feature of the account defended and a core element of the ‘standard’ interpretation of quantum mechanics are found to stand in an interesting, unanticipated and suggestive relation to each other.
ABSTRACT Sanna-Maria Salmi Quantum phenomena changing the world? ̶ A descriptive literature review 116 p. December, 2018. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences Master’s Degree in Health Care Master of Social Services Master’s Degree Programme of Community Development, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Quantum physics revolutionized our understanding of reality approximately a hundred years ago. The Newtonian classical, mechanistical paradigm was challenged by the quantum theory. The development in physics has often been unnoticed in the other sciences. It has been said that the mechanistical paradigm cannot solve the problems that humanity is facing. It has even been said that many of today’s problems are caused by the dualistic understanding of the human, society and reality. The aim of this research is to find out in which ways the paradigm shift in quantum physics has inspired the development of new ideas in social sciences and healthcare and in which ways these ideas could be used to shape the future. The goal of this thesis is to produce a concise, easily accessible, general view for the reader to gain an understanding of the “quantum” phenomena. If one so chooses, this could also provide tools for reflecting on one’s own worldview, the general western worldview, identity, work and organizations from this perspective. It could even provide inspiration to start working as a transformation agent in one’s own environment, in order to question the existing structures. The research was carried out using the descriptive literature review method. Research material was gathered from the several databases, and manual searches were also performed. The research material consists of one book, one book chapter a, doctoral dissertation and four articles. The material was analyzed using content-based content analysis. The results were separated to different categories: Quantum in social science, quantum in healthcare, quantum leadership, quantum theory in psychotherapy, quantum theory and human rights and the new holistic paradigm. Finally, a model of society, based on the unity, was created. The “quantum” has inspired researching new perspectives on almost everything in social sciences and nursing science. It could provide a new philosophical foundation, based on the unity of all. It personally challenges everybody to reflect on one’s own worldview, which builds a foundation in developing our society and institutions, which are basically created by human intentions. Consciousness is in a central role. When change is understood to be the nature of life, the perspective needs to change from processes to relationships. Leadership principles need to change accordingly, as leaders have a central role in the changemaking process. The concept of nature also gets a central role, as human beings are now a part of a system, instead of being the ruler of all. Keywords: Quantum, quantum theory, quantum entanglement, quantum social science, quantum leadership, quantum nursing, new paradigm, development, human rights, organisational change, self-awareness, global change, holism, dialogue, literature review.