Common Sense
12-22-2007, 08:36 PM
Since the 1970's, debate has raged concerning the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics. In fact, the debate has raged so intensely that it has come to be called the "Science Wars." The preferred means of communication for both sides of the debate has been, mostly, polemic. As such, the views of both sides have been, at times, misrepresented. Lindley, for example, characterizes the debate as a battle between materialists and idealists (http://www.banned-books.com/truth-seeker/1995archive/122_3/20realityquantum.html). This is false. Such metaphysical categories have been obsolete since the nineteenth century. The divisions between the two, opposing camps and their various wings are, in reality, far more convoluted.
Quantum mysticism is the view that quantum physics confirms New Age beliefs. Supporters of quantum mysticism range from hippie psychonauts, such as Fritjof Capra, to ultra-nationalistic Hindus. I want to stress here that science used to justify political or religious prejudice is pseudo-science and very dangerous. Just look at Soviet genetics during Stalin's reign. In 1897, the Hindu spiritual leader Vivekananda said that "the conclusions of modern science are the very conclusions the Vedanta reached ages ago," (Lecture on The Vedanta, 12 November 1897) linking then-recently developed notions from electromagnetism to the Vedantic concept of Prana. Now, I am by no means an expert on Hindu philosophy, and if I am in error about the concept of Prana, I trust that the Hindus on this forum will no doubt correct me. But it seems to me that the notion of Prana is strikingly similar to the Western concept of elan vitale or vital force. If this is correct, then I fail to see how pre-Special Relativity electrodynamics could confirm the existence of the vital force, since (1) electrodynamics has nothing to do with the vital force, which was a biological concept, and (2) vitalism had been virtually, if not completely, abandoned in the Western world as a theory of life by 1897. (Remeber a little fellow named Darwin? And Helmholtz before him?)
Concerning the 2004 film, "What the *Bleep* Do We Know?" an article in Physics Today criticized the movie as "illustrate the uncertainty principle with a bouncing basketball being in several places at once. There's nothing wrong with that. It's recognized as pedagogical exaggeration. But the movie gradually moves to quantum 'insights' that lead a woman to toss away her antidepressant medication, to the quantum channeling of Ramtha, the 35,000-year-old Atlantis god, and on to even greater nonsense."
A most embarassing incident for quantum mysticists and postmodernists occured in 1996, when Alan Sokal published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Social Text. In fact, the paper was an experimental hoax perpetrated by Sokal to see if one could ""publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions," (Sokal, Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity (http://www.physics.nyu.edu/~as2/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html). [i]Social Text (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Text) #46/47 (spring/summer 1996). The scandel has since been dubbed "The Sokal Affiar." To conclude on a humourous note, here is one of the more silly excerpts from Sokal's paper:
"Just as liberal feminists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_feminist) are frequently content with a minimal agenda of legal and social equality for women and 'pro-choice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-choice)', so liberal (and even some socialist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist)) mathematicians are often content to work within the hegemonic Zermelo-Fraenkel framework (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Fraenkel_framework) (which, reflecting its nineteenth-century liberal origins, already incorporates the axiom of equality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_equality)) supplemented only by the axiom of choice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice)."
Quantum mysticism is the view that quantum physics confirms New Age beliefs. Supporters of quantum mysticism range from hippie psychonauts, such as Fritjof Capra, to ultra-nationalistic Hindus. I want to stress here that science used to justify political or religious prejudice is pseudo-science and very dangerous. Just look at Soviet genetics during Stalin's reign. In 1897, the Hindu spiritual leader Vivekananda said that "the conclusions of modern science are the very conclusions the Vedanta reached ages ago," (Lecture on The Vedanta, 12 November 1897) linking then-recently developed notions from electromagnetism to the Vedantic concept of Prana. Now, I am by no means an expert on Hindu philosophy, and if I am in error about the concept of Prana, I trust that the Hindus on this forum will no doubt correct me. But it seems to me that the notion of Prana is strikingly similar to the Western concept of elan vitale or vital force. If this is correct, then I fail to see how pre-Special Relativity electrodynamics could confirm the existence of the vital force, since (1) electrodynamics has nothing to do with the vital force, which was a biological concept, and (2) vitalism had been virtually, if not completely, abandoned in the Western world as a theory of life by 1897. (Remeber a little fellow named Darwin? And Helmholtz before him?)
Concerning the 2004 film, "What the *Bleep* Do We Know?" an article in Physics Today criticized the movie as "illustrate the uncertainty principle with a bouncing basketball being in several places at once. There's nothing wrong with that. It's recognized as pedagogical exaggeration. But the movie gradually moves to quantum 'insights' that lead a woman to toss away her antidepressant medication, to the quantum channeling of Ramtha, the 35,000-year-old Atlantis god, and on to even greater nonsense."
A most embarassing incident for quantum mysticists and postmodernists occured in 1996, when Alan Sokal published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Social Text. In fact, the paper was an experimental hoax perpetrated by Sokal to see if one could ""publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions," (Sokal, Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity (http://www.physics.nyu.edu/~as2/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html). [i]Social Text (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Text) #46/47 (spring/summer 1996). The scandel has since been dubbed "The Sokal Affiar." To conclude on a humourous note, here is one of the more silly excerpts from Sokal's paper:
"Just as liberal feminists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_feminist) are frequently content with a minimal agenda of legal and social equality for women and 'pro-choice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-choice)', so liberal (and even some socialist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist)) mathematicians are often content to work within the hegemonic Zermelo-Fraenkel framework (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Fraenkel_framework) (which, reflecting its nineteenth-century liberal origins, already incorporates the axiom of equality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_equality)) supplemented only by the axiom of choice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_choice)."