Why IR scholars should care about quantum theory, part I: burdens of proof and uncomfortable facts

Alexander Wendt

doi:10.1017/s175297192100004x

Abstract

AbstractHow burdens of proof are allocated in science has an important bearing on how new knowledge develops. Usually, the burden is on new theories to prove their worth relative to a default, baseline of knowledge that is considered established and secure. However, in the case of classical vs. quantum social science matters are not that simple because the long-standing classical default has itself already failed to pass crucial tests, which has spurred the search for quantum solutions instead. Part I of this paper, therefore, tries to ‘re-balance’ the burdens of proof with Quantum Mind and Social Science’ critics, by highlighting two significant limits to date of classical thinking about the mind and society: the philosophical problem of finding a place for consciousness in the universe, and the scientific problem of explaining the Kahneman–Tversky anomalies in psychology. Acknowledging these outstanding problems does not equalize the burdens of proof, but it does mean that as we head into the more substantive discussion in Part II there is no secure default position. Just burdens of proof all around.

Highlights

The consolidation of quantum mechanics in the 1920s has had a deep technological impact on social reality – not least on the part of it international relation (IR) scholars study, through the advent of nuclear weapons that have revolutionized major power war
I embraced the heterodox view of a small but growing number of philosophers, physicists, and other scientists that consciousness is a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon, and that quantum theory should be directly relevant to understanding human beings
In social science we can act like the quantum revolution never happened, and continue to work within the classical worldview6 we inherited from physics in the 19th century

Summary

Consciousness and the CCP

The mind-body problem is about how to integrate our subjective, mental (and social) lives into an objective, scientific understanding of reality that respects the causal closure of physics (CCP). Subtleties aside, the CCP holds that everything in the universe is physical, and as such is constrained and enabled by the laws of physics. The mind-body problem is about how to integrate our subjective, mental (and social) lives into an objective, scientific understanding of reality that respects the causal closure of physics (CCP).. Illusionism is a symptom of a deep intellectual crisis in the modern scientific worldview It is a practical problem for social scientists, who are trying to explain why our ‘objects’ (sic), most of which are invisible, shared mental phenomena like states, behave (sic) as they do. If these objects are not just fictions, which is widely accepted, but illusions, what really are we doing?

Quantum decision theory

First conclusion