What an ambitious, impressive attempt to bring together the worlds of serious literature, Kantian philosophy, and quantum physics. I'm uncertain (like Heisenberg!) it succeeds but it's wonderfully, entertainingly provocative.
Understanding the world as a "reciprocal reflection of perspectives" is pretty Jamesian, too.
From the postscript:
"Quantum theory is the victory of science over the presuppositions that make science possible. That its findings still register such shock manifests how deeply those presuppositions take root. The physicist Carlo Rovelli puts it this way as he outlines what he calls the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics: "If we imagine the totality of things, we are imagining being outside the universe, looking at it from out there. But there is no 'outside' to the totality of things…. [W] hat exists are only internal perspectives on the world which are partial and reflect one another. The world is this reciprocal reflection of perspectives."[ 1] Indeed, the alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics I have discussed here—from objective collapse to many worlds—are, in his words again, "efforts to squeeze the discoveries of quantum physics into the canons of metaphysical prejudice."[ 2] Those canons of metaphysical prejudice work in mysterious ways. Even as they guide how scientists think about the meaning of their most significant discoveries, they also affect the lives those scientists lead, how they judge their lives, how we all judge our lives."
…
In short, despite our dearest desires and most desperate dreams, we are finite. That we can only ever understand things in relation to one another means that understanding will always stem from a limited perspective. Our reason propels us to incredible heights—understanding the fundamental components of matter and laws of the universe, seeing almost to the edges of the cosmos and the beginning of time. But it also leads us woefully astray. For the very ability we have to map our world and hence see our way through the dark also treats that map as though it were the world, and hence drapes a new veil over our enlightened eyes.
"Metaphysical prejudice": the perfect term to describe that magical thinking that Borges, Heisenberg, and Kant each explored, engaged with, and ultimately undid. Quantum theory may not gird us against metaphysical prejudice, but we cannot fully grasp its meaning while maintaining that prejudice. And thus, the persistence of its apparent paradoxes serves as a powerful reminder of how deeply set, how necessary to our thinking those prejudices are. When we see an effect, we reach for a cause, out there, in a world that is ubiquitous in space and durable in time, because we know, just know, that is how the world must be. We know so, but we are wrong. There is rigor there, indeed. But to see that we are the chess masters who made it, we must let the angels go. And that, it seems, is the hardest task of all.
— The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by William Egginton
https://a.co/eN3tq95
No comments:
Post a Comment