Sophía

Realismo, Relatividad General y el Gato de Schrödinger

Ricardo Restrepo

Published Jul 12, 2024• 1 citation

Abstract

The present work examines the nature of reality, including the possibility of freedom, in the framework of modern physics. Additionally, it proposes a reform for the metaphysics of realism.For realism, the world is the way it is independent of the mind. However, general relativity supposesthat the speed of objects and the temporal order of events depend on the frame of referenceadopted. Which frame of reference is adopted depends on human interests. However, there are still physical facts independent of the frame of reference: the speed of light, spacetime distance,and the equivalence of matter and energy, amongst others. On the other hand, the CopenhagenInterpretation supposes that quantum states are in a superposition that is only realized at themoment of observation, leading to the implication that Schrödinger’s cat is both alive and deaduntil observed. However, less incredible realist possibilities are analysed. Modern physics, whetherdeterminist or indeterminist, also threatens the possibility of freedom. The compatibility of freedom as self-government and modern physics is analysed and developed. Although central aspectsof realist metaphysics are conserved, a philosophical-scientific conception of the universe that integrates mental beings within it emerges, which supposes a reform for standard scientific realism. The existence of facts independent of what we happen to think is saved alongside ineliminable mental phenomena.

DOI: 10.17163/soph.n37.2024.02

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