A comparative analysis of the process of measurement in classical and quantum physics is given. It necessitates the expedience of the reexamination of the role of the researcher and his consciousness in the process of the interaction of the subject with the material world around him. A survey of the philosophical aspects that pertain to the problem of measurement in quantum physics leads to the conclusion that the scholar is not an independent observer of the material world beyond him, he rather becomes a part of this world to an extent that he brings pressure to bear on the properties of the observed objects. In other words, man becomes an integral part of the universe hence the classical assumption about the existence of the objective reality that is beyond the consciousness of man ceases to be relevant. That is why the philosophical treatment of the problems of quantum theory appears to be much closer to the philosophical principles of the East than to the more common here Western philosophy. Key words : quantum world, measurement, subject, object, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism.
A comparative analysis of the process of measurement in classical and quantum physics is given. It necessitates the expedience of the reexamination of the role of the researcher and his consciousness in the process of the interaction of the subject with the material world around him. A survey of the philosophical aspects that pertain to the problem of measurement in quantum physics leads to the conclusion that the scholar is not an independent observer of the material world beyond him, he rather becomes a part of this world to an extent that he brings pressure to bear on the properties of the observed objects. In other words, man becomes an integral part of the universe hence the classical assumption about the existence of the objective reality that is beyond the consciousness of man ceases to be relevant. That is why the philosophical treatment of the problems of quantum theory appears to be much closer to the philosophical principles of the East than to the more common here Western philosophy. Key words : quantum world, measurement, subject, object, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism.
Measurement problem in quantum theory is informed by the difficulties which howbeit, fall under philosophical investigation involving the behavior of sub-atomic particles, especially as it has to do with interaction between the mental and the physical. This problem dates back to antiquity with the belief in the duality of mind and body (mental and material) as distinct essences of nature. This paper is an attempt to highlight the issues involved in the measurement problem in quantum theory, while at the same time showing that the resultant paradoxes encountered in the process have always been present; they are just a resuscitation of ancient problems that philosophers have reflected upon as regards the description of physical reality. Key words: Measurement; Perception; Macro-world; Micro-world; Inclusion; Materialism and Idealism
We present a historical-epistemological analysis of the foundations of quantum mechanics, highlighting the relationships between quantum mechanics and scientific realism, as well as the influence of the neo-positivist philosophy of the first decades of the 20th century. The great significance of the measurement process in the context of quantum mechanics is underlined as an essential element in providing a coherent description of reality, moving from micro to macrocosm, as well as the role that the measurement apparatus and the consciousness of the observer assume during the act of measurement, the related ontological problems, the question of the objectification of the wave function, and that of the definition of discernibility. We consider also an overview of the most important alternative proposals to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics (Copenhagen interpretation), with particular reference to hidden variable theories and other alternatives to standard quantum mechanics philosophical approach, that are modifying the vision of reality, such as the Everett’s many-worlds theory, the QBism and unified holistic approaches, such as the Primordial Dynamic Space.
The assumption of an objective world underlying all our experiences is deeply embedded in our everyday thinking and in our language, and has been an unquestioned presupposition of the scientific enterprise for at least four centuries. Yet it is well known that quantum physics raises some highly problematic questions in this respect, questions that are still open, almost a century from the inception of the theory. I would like to propose that these questions stem from deep philosophical assumptions and can be answered in a much more coherent way if we understand the notion of an objective world not as a primary reality, but as an emergent aspect of a primary process that can be described as “experiencing”. A coherent description of the appearance of an objective world in the process of experiencing relies on a certain understanding of what is technically known as the “quantum measurement problem”, i.e. the description of the process of observation in quantum physics, which is the key problematic aspect of the theory. I will propose that the basic features that characterize a quantum observation have a much wider scope, and describe in fact all acquisition of information by an “embodied observer”, in short all experiencing happening in the world. By applying to this larger context work I have done in the more technical frame of the quantum measurement problem it can be shown that the nature of the process of experiencing is such as to inevitably generate the appearance of an objective world. Thus the objectivity of the world, although not primary and ultimately real, is an intrinsic consequence of our “experiential embodiment”, i.e. of the fact that we are in the world and all our experiences correspond to physical happenings in the world. When examined in this perspective, the “paradoxes” of quantum physics are an invitation to abandon the metaphysical assumption of the primacy of the objective dimension of reality. A philosophical position much more in tune with quantum physics views the process of experiencing as the primary source of both subject and object, consciousness and world.
It is widely accepted that consciousness at the start of the 20th century was considered mainly in the context of neurology and the mind-body problem belonged to the domain of neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, later broadened by behavioural science and cognitive science. However, these disciplines cannot completely explain the correlation between mental activity and matter. \nChapter one starts by defining the difficulty of determining consciousness. A discussion of how philosophers (such as Descartes, Locke, Dennett and Nagel) attempted to describe this phenomenon leads to the conclusion that firstly, consciousness is indefinable and secondly, it continues to be a challenge for both – philosophy and science – to explain how subjective consciousness fits into the objective world. The following two parts of the chapter focus on the major philosophical theories of the mind-body problem. \nIn chapter two there is a focus on the mutual relation between philosophy and science, physics in particular. However, this project deals more with the implications of science for the philosophy of mind and mind-body problem than the science itself. The second enquiry of this chapter is to point out the difference in philosophical and scientific understanding of the word ‘substance’ (crucial to the mind-body problem). \nChapter three considers quantum theory, since the relation between mind and body started to be tackled from the completely new point of view, after the philosophers began to assimilate the implications of quantum physics. Firstly, there is a short introduction to quantum theory and the most significant points for philosophy and quantum mechanics issues are provided (such as quantum superposition, the measurement problem or the backward causation). Analysis of three prevailing theories is provided. \nThis project addresses the contribution of quantum mechanics to the studies of consciousness and matter and examines whether it helps in solving the mind-body problem.
For over a century, scientists have been fascinated by the strange behaviour of matter at the quantum level, where particles can exist in many states at once and affect each other instantly across distances. This paper explores this realm of quantum mechanics by focusing on wave–particle duality, superposition, entanglement and the measurement problem. It shows how these concepts defy the foundations of clas-sical physics to challenge assumptions about determinism, locality, interconnection and objectivity. The paper maintains that although quantum theory works remarkably well, we lack a clear account of what kind of reality it describes, as major interpretations such as Copenhagen, Many-Worlds and objective collapse still struggle to match quantum theory’s success with a clear picture of reality. yet as its major interpretations offer com-peting and unresolved pictures of the world. Schrödinger’s cat illustrates this tension to showcase how macroscopic systems can expose the limits of observation and the line be-tween classical and quantum worlds. The paper concludes that these quantum principles are underpinned by both technical and philosophical challenges and they force us to re-think causality and the role of the observer in explaining reality.
The article highlights those discoveries of quantum physics, the philosophical understanding of which leads researchers to compare its ontology with Buddhist ontology. These are phenomena that reveal the subjectivism of physics. Thus, the discovery of the fundamental role of the observer for quantum mechanical processes and the collapse of the wave function became a «bridge» for the rapprochement of quantum mechanics and Buddhist philosophy, which asserts the relative nature of reality. The phenomenon of quantum non-locality or the plurality of parallel worlds became another basis for seeing the similarity of quantum physics and Buddhism. The idea of universal interdependence, characteristic of relational interpretations of quantum physics, also contributes to strengthening the idea of its similarity with Buddhist ontology. However, as the analysis of two representative comparative approaches shows – one developed by W. Mansfield from the side of physics, and the other developed by A. A. Terentyev from the side of Buddhism – the general tendency to compare the ontology of quantum physics and Buddhism is based on the incorrect reduction of Buddhist ontology to the doctrine of dependent origination and the wrongful identification of emptiness with dependent origination. Although the perception of Buddhist ontology as «Indra’s net» serves for comparativists from the side of physics, as well as for a wide circle of intellectuals, as the first step towards understanding the closeness of Buddhist philosophy to modern science, nevertheless, such popular interpretations are not entirely correct.