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Abstract

This study investigates the question of why quantum mechanics still lacks a generally-accepted interpretation in spite of a century of serious deliberation. It is guided by the question whether quantum mechanics requires a radical rethinking of the fundamental ontological and epistemological presuppositions on which the current world-view, a conception of nature adopted at the turn of the modern era, is based.

During recent centuries, physics has provided the main tools for the human enterprise of understanding reality and our own role in this context. The classical paradigm of science was based on the idea of an objective material world which obeys strict deterministic laws. It was greatly affected by Newtonian mechanics whose differential equations were easy to interpret as describing the movement of material particles in space and time. Consequently, classical physics inspired a strong belief in a deterministic and clockwork-like universe, external to the human observer.

In the quantum framework, the traditional space-time description of classical physics is overtaken by a more abstract description of state. The complex wave-function which resides in abstract multidimensional space is the most important term in the theory. It can never be directly observed and the interpretation of this abstract entity has been a source of long controversy. Some researchers consider it to be just a mathematical tool or instrument suitable for predicting the actual outcomes we can observe, others argue that the wave-function refers to some kind of transcendental quantum level. In any case, the wave-function is responsible for the non-local and statistical constitution of quantum physics which are difficult to understand and explain within the mechanical and deterministic paradigm of classical physics. With the new description of state, some kind of indivisibility, internal spontaneity and change appear to be a an unavoidable part of reality.

The core of this study consists of the chapters investigating quantum theory and the debate concerning its interpretation which has now continued for almost a century. Chapter 4 starts with a brief explanation of the results of physical research that led to the creation of quantum theory, and describes the main features of the theory in common language avoiding mathematics and any further interpretation.

Analysis of new features of the theory such as wave-particle dualism, non-locality, statistical predictions and the measurement problem helps in understanding why quantum mechanics is difficult to perceive within the mechanistic-deterministic framework of classical physics. The theory seems to provide encouragement for the endeavour of reconsidering classical presuppositions concerning the nature of reality. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics actually proposed a radical reappraisal of both previous conceptions of reality and the role of humans, whereas many subsequent interpretations have attempted to find a route back to the classical mechanical and deterministic framework by postulating a variety of auxiliary hypotheses.

This research material, i.e. the structure and interpretations of quantum mechanics, is studied against the background of previous conceptions of reality and the changes they brought about in western culture, in order to analyse and evaluate the credibility of the metaphysical presuppositions adopted by the classical paradigm of science. The author argues that contrary to the common presuppositions of the classical paradigm, the relationship between the human mind and nature may not be entirely one of detachment, and everything that happens may not be explainable by reducing individual events to mechanical interactions between particles.

In the concluding chapter, she extends Niels Bohr’s philosophy of complementarity and outlines an onto-epistemological framework within which many of the apparent paradoxes of quantum mechanics could be understood and solved. Even if profound revisions in the conception of reality are rare, the common world-view has, in western culture, changed radically in antiquity and at the turn of the modern era. The current change could be comparable in its extent, providing tools for a reconciliation of the ageold schism between natural science and humanistic concerns. By questioning the particle-mechanistic conception of matter, the new ontology offers a more fruitful starting point for understanding man’s relationship with nature. The non-local and statistical character of the state-description offers an opportunity to reconsider the subtle relationship between mind and matter. Mental states may be real and scientifically-approachable even if they are not totally identifiable with brain states. Human beings can be reconciled to the natural world without there being any need to restrain their unique character.

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