 Decoherentism: the Fourth (and the Last) Scientific Revolution in the 20th CenturyDekoherentismus: 4. (a poslední) revoluce ve fyzice ve XX. StoletíJán Pavlík E-LOGOS, 2004, vol. 2004, issue 1, 88 pages Abstract: Decoherentism, as being developed by many outstanding contemporary physicists, and elaborated in a systematic form by French physicist Roland Omnčs, eliminates eventually the long-lasting quantum-classical dualism in physics. It proves that in consequence of decoherence effect, the laws of quantum mechanics (with their probabilistic character) turn into the deterministic laws of classical physics; it describes therewith a real process through which the phenomenal world as given immediately to our sensory perception arises from quantum fundamentals; accordingly, classical determinism is a direct and controlled consequence of quantum mechanics.At the same time, decoherentism elaborated quantum logic (which is based on Griffiths' notion of consistent histories and corresponds to quantum mechanics) and proves that when decoherence acts, classical logic becomes a special kind of quantum logic. Since classical logic is essentially a learned version of common sense, the decoherentistic approach shows that the validity of common sense has its foundation in the rules of quantum mechanics. Thus, decoherentism eliminates the conflicts between quantum theory and common sense (in doing so, it proves that the famous paradoxes of Schrödinger's cat and the wave function reduction as well as the EPR paradox came from the mistake of having no account of decoherence effect).Nevertheless, decoherentism admits that the logic of common sense and as well as determinism itself have some probability of error which can be estimated in principle. These probabilities are most often extremely small and the corresponding errors have no practical consequence.Contrary to both classical and pre-decoherentistic quantum dynamics, decoherentism implies that the logical structure of quantum mechanics must select a definite direction of time, which necessarily coincides with the one occurring in thermodynamics; this means that the 2. law of thermodynamics (together with the irreversibility of time finds its basis in the decoherentistic interpretation of quantum mechanics.Hence it follows that decoherentism is truly a scientific revolution because the former principles (such as the principle of quantum-classical correspondence) turns in its frame into ordinary laws whic are derived from more fundamental principles.Considering the fact that classical determinism is a necessary presupposition for all scientific experiments, decoherentism's ability to derive determinism from newly interpreted quantum mechanics enables us to characterise it with the metaphor of "serpent gnawing his own tail." This means that quantum mechanics (in its decoherentistic interpretation) is able to explain even its own basic presuppositions; or, in other words, the results of the development of physical science turns back in order to explain its starting point. This important advancement makes physics structurally analogous to Adam Smith's economics (and to its metaphysical transcriptions in Hegel's Logic), to evolutionary biology and other sciences dealing with spontaneous order and self-organisation. Date: 2004 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:prg:jnlelg:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:190:p:1-88 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article E-LOGOS is currently edited by Miroslav Vacura More articles in E-LOGOS from Prague University of Economics and Business Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.