Observability and Observation in Physical Science

Lowenstein Jm

M. E. Omelianovsky

SANTOSH SHIRSATH

ABSTRACT- Observation is foundational to all empirical science, yet its physical structure is rarely treatedas a unified process across disciplines. In practice, observation does not provide direct accessto physical configurations or states; it registers detector responses produced by interactionsbetween systems and measuring apparatus. This paper formalizes observation as interactionlimited inference, showing that detectability depends on interaction channels, coupling strengths,timescales, and coarse graining. Using established examples from physics, chemistry, and materials science, we demonstrate that observational silence is a structural consequence of measurement constraints rather than evidence of physical absence. No new physical laws or entities areproposed. Instead, the work clarifies assumptions already implicit in experimental practice andprovides a unified conceptual framework for interpreting observation across scientific domains.

Subhash C. Kak

T. Bergstein

From the preceding exposition it follows that not only physics but natural science as a whole is basically dependent on ordinary language. The complementarity of quantum physics displays the fundamental interdependence of observation and description of natural phenomena, and the very objectivity of natural science relies directly on the differentiation of experiences into external and private phenomena afforded by ordinary language. Because of the extreme smallness of the quantum of action the complementarity of physical phenomena is not experienced either in daily life or in classical physics. But the interdependence of observation and description of phenomena prevails as much in classical science as in quantum physics. The very aim of experimental investigation is to perform observations in those particular ways which make possible the communication of information sufficient for the reproduction of the observed phenomena. Concordantly the elementary physical variables, which are indispensable to any systematic analysis in natural science, are defined through reference to measuring arrangements constructed so as to be unambiguously describable in ordinary language. Thus no scientific formula, law, or result of measurement can be given objective significance independent of ordinary language. Through every hierarchy of descriptions in natural science ordinary language penetrates as the unambiguity of propositions.

B. C. Chauhan

However, the observations encompassed by classical physics excludes the observer from the physical reality, yet the deep-down understandung of nature --{\it the quantum theory}-- can not avoid the intrusion of observer into the measurement process. Indeed, the quantum physics experiments have knocked the door of a new paradigm: in which science of consciousness is an important axiom. In the present work, it is argued --by taking into account of the views of learned scientists and philosophers-- that modern science is incomplete and lacking something in the basic understanding of nature \cite{r}. Classical physics has failed to explain the dynamics of the microscopic particles, eventhough modern scientific researches are based upon the prejudice posed by classical physics: keeping the outer physical universe as a separate entity, that is something quite independent of the observer --human mind. One should not forget that human-being is a part of nature and human mind is an essential component of our observations. Basically, it is the observer --the consciousness-- which makes perception possible. The working of human mind must be included in our scientific theories. In fact, human free will is an illusion and nothing in the entire universe (with life) lies outside the domain of science and determinism.