One of the pleasant aspects of a long career inward philosophy is the occasional sense of a truly novel approach to familiar problems. Some...
One of the pleasant aspects of a long career inward philosophy is the occasional sense of a truly novel approach to familiar problems. Sometimes one's reaction is skeptical at get-go -- "that's a crazy idea!". And sometimes the approach turns out to accept genuine promise. I've had that sense of moving from profound dubiety to appreciation several times over the years, in addition to it is an uplifting learning experience. (Most recently, I've made that progression amongst honor to unopen to of the ideas of assemblage in addition to actor-network theory advanced yesteryear thinkers such equally Bruno Latour; link, link.)
I'm having that sense of unexpected vibrations equally I start out to read Alexander Wendt's Quantum Mind in addition to Social Science: Unifying Physical in addition to Social Ontology. Wendt's majority addresses many of the issues amongst which philosophers of social scientific discipline accept grappled for decades. But Wendt suggests a fundamental switch inward the way that nosotros holler upwards of the relation betwixt the human sciences in addition to the natural world. He suggests that an emerging epitome of enquiry on consciousness, advanced yesteryear Giuseppi Vitiello, John Eccles, Roger Penrose, Henry Stapp, in addition to others, may accept of import implications for our agreement of the social basis equally well. This is the champaign of "quantum neuropsychology" -- the trunk of theory that maintains that puzzles surrounding the mind-body occupation may hold upwards resolved yesteryear examining the workings of quantum demeanor inward the fundamental nervous system. I'm non certain which category to lay the thought of quantum consciousness yet, just it's interesting plenty to pursue further.
The familiar occupation inward this representative is the relation betwixt the mental in addition to the physical. Like all physicalists, I piece of work on the supposition that mental phenomena are embodied inward the physical infrastructure of the fundamental nervous system, in addition to that the fundamental nervous organisation plant according to familiar principles of electrochemistry. Thought in addition to consciousness are somehow the "emergent" outcome of the workings of the complex physical construction of the encephalon (in a prophylactic in addition to bounded sense of emergence). The novel approach is the thought that somehow quantum physics may play a strikingly dissimilar move inward this topic than e'er had been imagined. Theorists inward the champaign of quantum consciousness speculate that mayhap the peculiar characteristics of quantum events at the sub-atomic flat (e.g. quantum randomness, complementary, entanglement) are unopen plenty to the activeness of neural networks that they serve to attain a neural construction radically dissimilar properties from those expected yesteryear a classical-physics thought of the brain. (This thought isn't exactly new; when I was an undergraduate inward the 1960s it was sometimes speculated that liberty of the volition was possible because of the indeterminacy created yesteryear quantum physics. But this wasn't a really compelling idea.)
Wendt's farther contribution is to immerse himself inward unopen to of this work, in addition to so to formulate the interrogation of how these perspectives on intentionality in addition to mentality powerfulness impact key topics inward the philosophy of society. For example, how exercise the longstanding concepts of construction in addition to means facial expression when nosotros start out amongst a quantum perspective on mental activity?
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 skilful house to start inward preparing to read Wendt's majority is Harald Atmanspacher's first-class article inward the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (link). Atmanspacher organizes his handling into iii large areas of application of quantum physics to the occupation of consciousness: metaphorical applications of the concepts of quantum physics; applications of the electrical flow soil of cognition inward quantum physics; in addition to applications of possible futurity advances inward cognition inward quantum physics.
Among these [status quo] approaches, the ane amongst the longest history was initiated yesteryear von Neumann inward the 1930s.... It tin hold upwards roughly characterized equally the proposal to consider intentional witting acts equally intrinsically correlated amongst physical soil reductions. (13)A physical soil reduction is the lawsuit that occurs when a quantum probability champaign resolves into a discrete particle or lawsuit upon having been measured. Some theorists (e.g. Henry Stapp) speculate that witting human intention may influence the physical soil reduction -- hence a "mental" lawsuit causes a "physical" event. And unopen to procedure along these lines is applied to the "activation" of a neuronal assembly:
The activation of a neuronal assembly is necessary to brand the encoded content consciously accessible. This activation is considered to hold upwards initiated yesteryear external stimuli. Unless the assembly is activated, its content remains unconscious, unaccessed memory. (20)Also of involvement inward Atmanspacher's draw organisation human relationship is the thought of emergence: are mental phenomena emergent from physical phenomena, in addition to inward what sense? Atmanspacher specifies a clear just rigid Definition of emergence, in addition to considers whether mental phenomena are emergent inward this sense:
Mental states and/or properties tin hold upwards considered equally emergent if the textile encephalon is non necessary or non sufficient to explore in addition to sympathise them. (6)This is a rigid innovation inward a really specific way; it specifies that textile facts are non sufficient to explicate "emergent" mental properties. This implies that nosotros require to know unopen to additional facts beyond facts virtually the textile encephalon inward monastic enjoin to explicate mental states; in addition to it is natural to inquire what the nature of those additional facts powerfulness be.
The argue this collection of ideas is initially shocking to me is the departure inward scale betwixt the sub-atomic flat in addition to macro-scale entities in addition to events. There is something spooky virtually postulating causal links across that attain of scales. It would hold upwards wholly crazy to speculate that nosotros require to invoke the mathematics in addition to theories of quantum physics to explicate billiards. It is pretty good agreed yesteryear physicists that quantum mechanics reduces to Newtonian physics at this scale. Even though the element pieces of a billiard ball are quantum entities amongst peculiar properties, equally an ensemble of 10^25 of these particles the demeanor of the ball is safely classical. The peculiarities of the quantum flat launder out for systems amongst multiple Avogadro's numbers of particles through the reliable workings of statistical mechanics. And the intuitions of most people comfortable amongst physics would atomic number 82 them to assume that neurons are champaign of study to the same independence; the scale of activity of a neuron (both spatial in addition to temporal) is orders of magnitude equally good large to reverberate quantum effects. (Sorry, Schrodinger's cat!)
Charles Seife reports a railroad train of fundamental physical computations conducted yesteryear Max Tegmark intended to demonstrate this inward a recent article inward Science Magazine, "Cold Numbers Unmake the Quantum Mind" (link). Tegmark's analysis focuses on the speculations offered yesteryear Penrose in addition to others on the possible quantum demeanor of "microtubules." Tegmark purports to demonstrate that the fourth dimension in addition to infinite scales of quantum effects are equally good brusque yesteryear orders of magnitude to draw organisation human relationship for the neural mechanisms that tin hold upwards observed (link). Here is Tegmark's abstract:
Based on a calculation of neural decoherence rates, nosotros combat that the degrees of liberty of the human encephalon that relate to cognitive processes should hold upwards thought of equally a classical rather than quantum system, i.e., that in that place is zero fundamentally incorrect amongst the electrical flow classical approach to neural network simulations. We break that the decoherence fourth dimension scales (∼10^−13–10^−20s) are typically much shorter than the relevant dynamical fourth dimension scales (∼10^−3–10^−1s), both for regular neuron firing in addition to for kinklike polarization excitations inward microtubules. This determination disagrees amongst suggestions yesteryear Penrose in addition to others that the encephalon acts equally a quantum computer, in addition to that quantum coherence is related to consciousness inward a fundamental way. (link)I am grateful to Atmanspacher for providing such a clear in addition to logical presentation of unopen to of the primary ideas of quantum consciousness; just I move on to break myself sceptical. There is a conduct chances inward this champaign to succumb to the temptation towards unbounded speculation: "Maybe if X's could influence Y's, so nosotros could explicate Z" without whatever cognition of how X, Y, in addition to Z are related through causal pathways. And the champaign seems sometimes to hold upwards prey to this impulse: "If quantum events were partially mental, so mayhap mental events could influence quantum states (and from in that place influence macro-scale effects)."
In an upcoming postal service I'll facial expression closely at what Alex Wendt makes of this trunk of theory inward application to the flat of social demeanor in addition to structure.
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