Structure Of Physical Reality Research Articles

Ontic structural realism and quantum field theory: Are there intrinsic properties at the most fundamental level of reality?

Ontic structural realism refers to the novel, exciting, and widely discussed basic idea that the structure of physical reality is genuinely relational. In its radical form, the doctrine claims that there are, in fact, no objects but only structure, i.e., relations. More moderate approaches state that objects have only relational but no intrinsic properties. In its most moderate and most tenable form, ontic structural realism assumes that at the most fundamental level of physical reality there are only relational properties. This means that the most fundamental objects only possess relational but no non-reducible intrinsic properties. The present paper will argue that our currently best physics refutes even this most moderate form of ontic structural realism. More precisely, I will claim that 1) according to quantum field theory, the most fundamental objects of matter are quantum fields and not particles, and show that 2) according to the Standard Model, quantum fields have intrinsic non-relational properties.

Wolfgang Köhler on Facts and Values

1. A talented experimentalist and theoretician, trained in physics no less than in psychology, Wolfgang Kohler famously provided outstanding advancements in the development of the theory of Gestalt. In some of his works, Kohler interestingly 1 developed philosophical ideas as well. To be sure, he never considered himself a professional philosopher. Rather, as a consequence of his permanent commitment to scientific investigation and scientific methods, Kohler was eager to reflect upon the consequences of applying a scientific world view to human life. In his own words, he discussed the question of The place of value in a world of facts, as the title of his 1938 book reads. In this essay I investigate some of Kohler’s philosophical ideas. Kohler competently discusses the problem of facts and values, which is still urgent nowadays. To this purpose, he expresses his views concerning the nature of phenomenological data, the way mental and brain processes are related and the structure of physical reality. Although his philosophical reflexions mainly ensue from his epistemological turn, consisting in the adoption of the Gestalt's point of view in psychology, in The Place of Value in a World of Facts and in other works Kohler goes far beyond Gestalt psychology and develops a consistent and partly autonomous epistemology. In his view, true science cannot allow for the contradiction arising between the complete absence of value-related entities in the physical world and the obvious valuerelatedness of many, or most, human behaviors. Positivism and behaviorism tried to

QUANTUM REALITY AND ETHOS: A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT REGARDING THE FOUNDATION OF ETHICS IN COSMIC ORDER

Abstract.The authors undertake a thought experiment the purpose of which is to explore possibilities for understanding moral principles in analogy with cosmic order. The experiment is based on three proposals, which are described in detail: an ontological, a neurological, and a moral proposal. The ontological proposal accepts from the phenomena of quantum physics that there is a nonempirical domain of physical reality that consists not of material things but of what is philosophically conceptualized as a realm of nonmaterial forms. This realm of forms is the realm of potentiality in physical reality that quantum physics posits as an indivisible Wholeness—the One. It is the ultimate reality because everything empirical is the actualization of its forms. The neurological proposal is the hypothesis that the brain is sensitive to the potentiality waves in the cosmic field, as ordinary measuring instruments in physics are sensitive to potentiality waves at the quantum level, so that the cosmic field can communicate with the human brain. The third proposal assumes that the communication with the cosmic field can translate into moral ideas and actions. Even though the three proposals underlying the thought experiment are highly speculative, they lead to definite implications that make sense in their own right and can be applied in a useful way. From the order of reality some simple rules of conduct follow that are identical with traditional moral rules but have the character of rules of well‐ness, leading to new aspects of Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia and Kant's concept of the highest good. In analogy with the structure of physical reality, where all empirical phenomena are actualizations of nonempirical forms, it is suggested that the structure of morality, too, is that of a tacit, nonempirical form that actualizes in explicit principles and moral acts through our consciousness. The tacit form is thought to exist in the realm of cosmic potentiality, together with all the other forms that the empirical world actualizes. It can appear spontaneously in our consciousness when needed, offering its guidance to our judgment and free will. Because it does not appear in the form of commandments accompanied by threats, the actions of the tacit moral form define a higher level of morality, similar to that offered by some aspects of the Christian teaching, where one acts not out of fear but on the desire to do things right.

The fourth structure of physical reality

In the course of a study of elementary particles, an analysis is given of a fundamental presupposition of many research programs, namely the belief in the ultimate unity of physics. It is argued tht this unity-idea is incorrect. By classicial physics, relativity theory and quantum theory three distinct structures of nature are revealed.

Stratification of the Meaning of Time

It is no accident that when Socrates, Critias, Hermocrates, and Timaeus came to discuss the historicity of the Ancient Athens in correlation to Socrates' idea of the ideal city, they were led to the problem of the metaphysical reality of time. In Timaeus, time becomes the hinge of correlation between historical reality and eternity. And so it is with Augustine. In his Confessions, after a lengthy discussion of his personal history he sets out to construct an ontological structure for the interpretation of history as a whole. Right there, he encounters the problem of time. ‘What, then, is time? If no one asks of me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.’ Lament as Augustine may, he plunges right into the puzzle.The problem of time is more than a pastime interest for metaphysical speculation. It is at the root of our understanding of the structure both of physical and of human existence. Einstein's relational concept of time affects our understanding of the structure of physical reality, just as the former Newtonian habit of looking at time as an independently flowing stream governed our former way of seeing things. With the suggestion in the Newtonian model that one moment of time flows into the one immediately next in sequence, we unconsciously look at events as flowing one into the other, and so we perceive events in terms of causal connexions. The relational model breaks the necessity of causal connexions and replaces it with a concept of functional dependence.