The article is devoted to the problem of time in modern science, where in recent years there have been major changes related to the latest discoveries in the field of the foundations of quantum theory. The author refers to works of K.-F. von Weizsacker (which works are not well-known in Russian-speaking field). Weizsacker deploys a large-scale program of building modern physics, while starting (not only as a physicist, but also a professional philosopher) with questions of philosophical interpretation of postulates of modern physics, especially quantum mechanics. His key thesis is that time in physics is fundamentally distinct, which represents the whole physics as an integral scientific discipline. Weizsacker comes from physical and philosophical reflections, that give a special value to his work. Analyzing the conclusions of theoretical physics, namely the issues of substantiation of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and, above all, quantum mechanics, Weizsacker comes to the key idea of the structure of time in the substantiation of physical theory. The author in this conclusion disagrees with the opinion of most modern physicists that time has a subjective character, and the modus of the past, present and future reflects its essential character. The allocation of the time structure requires special logic. Such a logic is temporal and quantum. Starting from temporal logic, introducing the concept of possibility and probability, he comes to the substantiation of quantum mechanics. Being modal logic, it is based on the concept of possibility and probability. Key concept for Weizsacker is a binary alternative (Uralternative), closely related to the principle of superposition in quantum mechanics. By introducing the concept of certain alternatives, essentially actualized alternatives, Weizsacker shows how one can get the theory of relativity with its space-time structure. Further, he shows that based on its structure, you can get the theory of relativity. The space-time structure in this case is secondary, relational, as understood by Leibniz, Mach, and Einstein.
The article is devoted to the problem of time in modern science, where in recent years there have been major changes related to the latest discoveries in the field of the foundations of quantum theory. The author refers to works of K.-F. von Weizsacker (which works are not well-known in Russian-speaking field). Weizsacker deploys a large-scale program of building modern physics, while starting (not only as a physicist, but also a professional philosopher) with questions of philosophical interpretation of postulates of modern physics, especially quantum mechanics. His key thesis is that time in physics is fundamentally distinct, which represents the whole physics as an integral scientific discipline. Weizsacker comes from physical and philosophical reflections, that give a special value to his work. Analyzing the conclusions of theoretical physics, namely the issues of substantiation of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and, above all, quantum mechanics, Weizsacker comes to the key idea of the structure of time in the substantiation of physical theory. The author in this conclusion disagrees with the opinion of most modern physicists that time has a subjective character, and the modus of the past, present and future reflects its essential character. The allocation of the time structure requires special logic. Such a logic is temporal and quantum. Starting from temporal logic, introducing the concept of possibility and probability, he comes to the substantiation of quantum mechanics. Being modal logic, it is based on the concept of possibility and probability. Key concept for Weizsacker is a binary alternative (Uralternative), closely related to the principle of superposition in quantum mechanics. By introducing the concept of certain alternatives, essentially actualized alternatives, Weizsacker shows how one can get the theory of relativity with its space-time structure. Further, he shows that based on its structure, you can get the theory of relativity. The space-time structure in this case is secondary, relational, as understood by Leibniz, Mach, and Einstein.
This paper is devoted to the key ideas of K. F. von Weizsäcker. His book “Aufbau der Physik”, which is dedicated to building a unified physical theory, is in the focus. Confirming that quantum mechanics is a universal physical theory, Weizsäcker is looking for ways to construct it. Based on the logic of temporary statements, introducing the concept of the Uralternative, Weizsäcker comes to the construction of quantum theory. He shows that on its basis the theory of relativity can be obtained, the structure of space with a relational character can be deduced.
The article continues the research on the phenomenon of the present time in the work of K.F. von Weizsäcker “The Construction of Physics”. Weizsäcker considers the phenomenon of time based on its phenomenological and specific quantum mechanical description. This work deals to a greater extent with the last aspect of the description of time. Based on a scrupulous analysis of mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics (QM), Weizsäcker states that time is such a paradoxical structure, which escapes clear definitions, that it can be “expressed only in the form of negations”. He is led to this conclusion by the analysis of time as a real parameter which reduces to point time, that is, when we begin to consider zero-time intervals. The general formalism of QM forces us to abandon such ideas. Considering that all the concepts of QM relate to the concept of probability, and the concept of fact with the concept of double probability p (a, b), Weizsäcker makes a far-reaching conclusion: some act of the present (a), “fact”, turns out to be only a possibility in the future of some class of events (b) that document this fact. In this kind of process, one can see how “the future affects the past”. Experiments have been conducted to confirm this phenomenon. We are talking about experiments with a “quantum eraser”. Within this approach, events are considered as reversible, which can be eliminated under certain conditions. Based on the phenomenological understanding, Weizsäcker formulates the concept of “the encompassing present”, which already includes the past, the present, and the future. From here, he formulates his main conclusion that a genuine event exists only in the all-encompassing present.
We are interested here in the program of reconstruction of quantum mechanics of the German physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, which still has some supporters today. In the major part of this article, we limit ourselves to examining purely epistemological and philosophical questions. The theory of the German physicist is often interpreted with reference to Kant, but the most of the time in a rather vague way (categories of understanding, theory of experience). We can afford to be more precise. First we situate the theory of fundamental alternatives (or Ur-alternatives) of von Weizsäcker in the lineage of the Kantian theory of the transcendental Ideal. We then show that the physicist only substitutes for the classical logic, on which Kant relied, a quantum logic allowing to generate, from the alternatives, via the local isomorphism between certain spinor groups and groups linked to space-time, the whole of physical reality to which we have access. After examining some problems, we finally show how this perspective leads to a quantum theory of information.
W. Heisenberg's treatise “Reality and its order” is a philosophical work of a scientist and philosopher and reflects the totality of his views on various aspects of reality. In this article, the author attempts to analyze the central concepts of quantum mechanics, “state” and “time”, as well as to determine how relevant the ideas of the treatise may be in the world of modern natural science. This point seems especially important, given the time of writing the treatise (no later than 1942), which gives reason to recall the philosophical foundations on which physics rests, and give them a new interpretation that meets modern challenges. The article shows the need to build modern physics on the principles of metaphysics, that is, to study the subject of physics from the position that the world has a metaphysical basis. Statements about the nature of time by various authors are given: from ancient natural philosophers (Aristotle) to medieval thinkers (Augustine, Grossetest), as well as modern researchers (A.Yu. Sevalnikov, Yu.S. Vladimirov, V.D. Zakharov), etc.
The aim of the article is to analyze the ontological foundations of quantum mechanics and the relationship of various interpretations of quantum mechanics with the question of truth in scientific knowledge. The theoretical material (various interpretations of quantum mechanics) was analyzed. The research methods were analysis, comparative-historical and institutional approaches. On the basis of the study, it can be concluded that physicists are only able to predict the probabilities of physical phenomena or processes, without any knowledge of the structure of entity in itself. The study helps to complement the theoretical picture of the ontology of quantum mechanics and to get an idea about the development prospects of the methodology of physical sciences. We should not ascribe properties that are unobservable in experience to the entity because science can truly interpret only the representation of entity in itself in experience and the ways of dealing with it, not future events or possible states of the entity. Otherwise, science “slides” down to the level of dialectical (rhetorical) exercises based not on true premises, but on generally accepted or “authoritative” biases, which gives room to extreme forms of relativism and takes natural scientists away from studying nature to inventing empirically unsupported hypotheses. When, in accordance with the Cartesian ontology, the scientist assumes that the entity is as the “subject” observes it (that is, the “reflection” of the entity in consciousness is identified with entity in itself), this assumption leads the scientist to attempts to “scientifically” describe the future events or the possible states of the entity. The criterion for the truth of a scientific theory put forward by Einstein in his dispute with Bohr remains a fundamentally unattainable ideal. Cognition of nature is probabilistically and fundamentally incomplete since a person can consciously comprehend natural phenomena only within the framework of their representation in the existing being. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is due to the impossibility of knowing things as they exist by themselves, that is, as they exist outside of representation in the mind of the observer. This does not mean that physical entities did not exist before their knowledge: they existed potentially, but were not valid for the observer, that is, conscious. Quantum physics is as incomplete as any other physical theory when compared with an unattainable ideal, but this fact does not negate its truth for modern scientists since quantum theory is based on the results of verified experiments.
The development of the logical and mathematical foundations of quantum physics and, first of all, quantum mechanics is the work of a large team of physicists, mathematicians and philosophers who have contributed to the solution of this problem. The title of the article lists the names of four scientists who, according to the author, paved the way for the creation of quantum logic. This must be understood in such a way that from the very beginning (Heisenberg and Schrödinger) it was established that the properties of quantum objects are described not by numbers, but by operators. In the relationships of the operators themselves, one could see an analogue of Boolean algebra of classical logic. Weizsäcker raised the question of how the physical quantity of time, in describing the motion states of quantum objects, can be represented: an operator or a state vector? The author of the article shows that the development of quantum mechanics has gone through two stages. The first stage differs in that complex numbers and functions were introduced into physics, in other words, elements of the theory of functions of a complex variable. At the second stage, spinor calculus penetrated into quantum physics. If at the first stage methods were presented for describing the external degrees of freedom (motion) of elementary particles and other quantum objects, then the second stage was marked by the description of internal degrees of elementary particles. It became possible to understand that the measured mass of an electron or any other fermion is an averaged quantity, it consists of two ingredients: a positive mass and a negative mass (two values of the corresponding operator). An important role in this discovery played the operation of dialectical negation (privation), borrowed from Heidegger's fundamental ontology.