Philippine E-Journals

On Metaphysics, the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, and the Humanities

Michael Dwyer

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

Some philosophers, educationalists, and social theorists think to deduce sweeping epistemological consequences, e.g., that objective observation does not exist, from such foundational results of quantum mechanics as HUP, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. In this article, we argue that, if these consequences do follow from some aspect of quantum theory, they follow not from the correct mathematical statement of HUP but, at best, from a debatable interpretation of HUP on which imaginary macroscopic observers are pictured interacting with microscopic phenomena.