The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key 3rd Edition by Wolfgang Smith (PDF)

Description

Following the overthrow of the classical world picture by the findings of quantum mechanics, physicists have proposed a broad gamut of alternative worldviews. The Quantum Enigma begins with the major recognition that each of these suffers from a certain “residual Cartesianism” that has been smuggled in unconsciously. It turns out that the moment this hidden and problematic premise is discarded, quantum theory begins to “make sense” in a way that it never has before. As the author shows, it is now possible, for the first time, to integrate the findings of quantum physics into a worldview that conforms to the permanent intuitions of mankind. This work can be read by scientists but is also surprisingly accessible to the general reader unacquainted with the technical conceptions of physics or the quantum-reality literature.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Wolfgang Smith is as important a thinker as our times boast, and this is his most seminal book.” — Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions”The Quantum Enigma is of great importance not only for the philosophy of science, but also for the whole domain of human knowledge, and should be disseminated as widely as possible.” — Seyyed Hossein Nasr”Unusually interesting . . . profoundly enlightening.” — Henry Margenau About the Author Wolfgang Smith graduated from Cornell University at age eighteen with majors in physics, philosophy, and mathematics. After taking an M.S. in physics at Purdue, he pursued research in aerodynamics, where his papers on diffusion fields provided the theoretical key to the solution of the re-entry problem for space flight. After receiving a Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia University, Dr. Smith held faculty positions at M.I.T., U.C.L.A., and Oregon State University, where he served as Professor of Mathematics until his retirement in 1992. In addition to numerous technical publications (relating to differential topology), Dr. Smith has published three previous books and many articles dealing with foundational and interdisciplinary problems. He has been especially concerned to unmask conceptions of a scientistic kind widely accepted today as scientific truths.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Wolfgang Smith does an excellent job explaining the nature of and the reasons for the current uproar over quantum physics, (including superposition, collapse of the wave-function, etc.) and its relationship with classical physics. However he makes no mention of entanglement which I feel is a central challenge to modern scientific beliefs. He explains these theories using scholastic philosophy, which of course is opposed to current reductionist beliefs, but his discussion of the physics clarifies some of the scientific concepts other authors do not completely explain.

⭐The scientific community has been drudging along since the solidification of quantum mechanics. Where premodern scientists rushed to provide philosophical grounds for their discoveries, we have continued to bathe in the ignorance of reductionist empiricism. The realm of quantum mechanics holds within its core a huge opportunity to become re-enchanted with the world once more.

⭐In this scholarly, yet accessible book, Wolfgang Smith draws a distinction between his own philosophical views and those of Werner Heisenberg’s. Believing that quantity and scale alone do not distinguish the quantum world from the everyday macro world of classical physics, Smith rejects Heisenberg’s view and aligns himself with the philosophy of Niels Bohr who once made the assertion that there is no quantum world. Rather, Smith arbitrarily divides the world into three separate categories: The corporeal, the subcorporeal and the transcorporeal. The corporeal world is that which we perceive with our senses, our everyday reality of sight, sound, touch, and smell. Corporeal objects Smith maintains are not anything like the physical world, but merely occupy the same space. Thought most idealist and representationalist philosophers beginning with Descartes and John Locke and continuing to the present consider secondary qualities such as taste, sight, and sound subjective attributes imparted by the observer, Smith considers these qualities just as objective as mass and quantity, while maintaining, if not incredibly, that even the red color of an apple is an objective quality independent of observation. This corporeal world of the senses is presented by the physical or subcorporeal world–Plato’s universal forms (nature in and of itself)–perfectly described by mathematics yet imperceptible to the senses. Atomic and subatomic particles–the transcorporeal world–can never be perceive and must be measured by a subcorporeal measuring device, such as a geiger counter, or bubble chamber. These devices, in turn, make a presentation of themselves by making a transformation into the corporeal world of perception. There is no indeterminacy as suggested by Heisenberg, nor is there any wave/particle duality or quantum measurement problem as described by Bohr. Smith maintains that the state vector collapse does not happen at the level of the atom, but occurs the moment a subcorporeal object passes into the corporeal domain. Macroscopic objects of classical physics are every bit as “potential” as subatomic particles and it is measurement that actualizes the “potentia” from the physical into the corporeal level of reality. As a result, Smith believes that there is no mystery in the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox. It is not necessary he claims, for the observer to peer into the box to determine if the cat is dead or alive, since the cat, which belongs to the corporeal world, collapses its own state vector. Just how the transition from the subcorporeal to the corporeal world is achieved isn’t addressed directly, but once must infer from statements such as “the entire universe is created for us,” that he is an adherent to the strong anthropic principle. As a result, the quantum measurement problem is not solved but instead, is merely shifted from the quantum domain to a supposed transformation between the subcorporeal and corporeal domains under equally mysterious circumstances. Smith beieves that “God plays dice” and that it is only an averaging effect of large numbers at the classical level of nature that accounts for the deterministic appearance of reality. In the end Smith disappoints somewhat by reverting to a deity to explain what is at present still misunderstood, betraying his rational sensibility.

⭐This is a very good book to understand quantum theory in light of Thomistic metaphysics.It is obvious that although Aquinas’ science is obsolete, his philosophical insight is not; it is even useful to enlighten our understanding of quantum theory.

⭐everything excellent, service and the book

⭐Excellent!Thank you!tjd

⭐It is best to have some familiarity with both the basic theories of Quantum Mechanics and some standard Philosophical concepts that you would have seen in college before tackling this book it is not truly necessary (his explanations are sufficient to cover this deficit). But the depths that Dr. Smith opens for the reader are remarkable with just this little foundation.Current scientific thought seeks to explain the mysteries of State Vector Collapse and Non-locality by digging for more and more elementary particles. Dr. Smith demonstrates that by eliminating the Cartesian Bifurcation in our understanding a better understanding of the real world opens up and we can recognize the quantum mechanical world as the substrate on which our world is formed. By doing so, the bizarre phenomenon of State Vector Collapse makes perfect sense and we recognize the utter treasure that we have in Quantum Physics, a treasure whose full implications are not recognized in the Physics community of our day.Anyone who is at all interested in Science should read this book!

⭐I recommend it.

⭐Interesting but not ultimately convincing, which might be thought hardly surprising, given the subject and the many other attempts made at resolving its problems of indeterminacy and non-localism.The early chapters which set out the ontological basis of the difficulties are excellent. Care is taken in the use of precise language to define what is and can be known about the world at various levels of existence and perception. This forms the foundation of the author’s preliminary analysis. I was agog to know how it was all going to play out.Introduction of Yin and Yang as an analogy made me slightly uneasy about where things were going, but it seemed justifiable so long as it remained just that: an analogy. Where the argument became really hard to follow was when the topic of vertical causation was introduced. Then, as that became linked to intelligent design, I started wondering whether it was worth making the effort.Did the author mean the same intelligent design that the opposers of Darwinian evolution offer as an alternative? Yes, he said, the signature of ID, complex specified information, gave the Darwinists a problem: only vertical causation can generate CSI, not stochastic processes, and so on… Now, I acknowledge that Darwinian theory has a lot of holes but I can’t see intelligent design as an alternative. It is not even a theory in the proper sense of the word. It won’t do for me as an explanation of quantum paradoxes either.Nevertheless, if you take the creationist element out of the argument, I wonder whether there is something in Wolfgang Smith’s vertical causation line of thinking. Clearly, normal causation does not work for quantum phenomena (I almost said processes) so something else is required, but something beyond Yin-Yang analogy. Thinking about this different dimension of causation put me in mind of a notion that cropped up in a book of Feynman’s letters which I also read recently: what if there were a second dimension of time? (You can have a lot of fun with this idea, not just with all the multiple universes created when quantum measurements are made: think about all the forks in the road of life referred to by sage Yogi Berra!)This is a very thought-provoking book even if it lacks a real denouement. The appendix, “quantum theory: a brief introduction”, is superb in itself. It sets out the nature of the enigma in a most concise and precise manner, developing the twin slit paradox in terms of Hilbert spaces, Schrödinger wave forms and Heisenberg uncertainties with the minimum of complicated or complex mathematics.

⭐Pour études. Je l’ai reçu en 2 exemplaires. C’est bon, j’offrirai le second.Pour quoi, dans la rubrique créer un commentaire, ai-je un sous-total incompris et 4 articles en ligne, sur Smith bien entendu, choisis mais non encore commandés !

⭐

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