December 14, 2023
I've been studying a series of articles, stories of Jorg Borg, and a fascinating book The Rigor of Angels by William Egginton about science, knowledge and reasoning as described by Kant, Heisenberg, Einstein, and other scientists. My forays into these issues and thinkers included Robert Sapolsky, a brilliant neuroscientists whose book Behave I reviewed in a previous post (February 26, 2021) and who has some interest in the subject of free will. I tried out explaining some of my confused understanding to others, delved further into Kant's antinomies, and tried some fiction of Jorg Borg. To escape from these pursuits I just finished a part chase, many world, science fiction novel that was a delight to read (Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey) which incorporates the many worlds hypothesis I will describe later in this blog.
Kant defines an antimony "is the consequence of a finite entity trying and failing to grasp the infinite" https://unacademy.com/content/upsc/study-material/philosophy/antinomy/. For example, if I say "there is no absolute truth" I'm caught in a sink hole of an antimony since I'm attempting to convey some wisdom that contradicts itself since if I'm making a statement about absolute truth I just stated there is none but that negates what I just wrote! Here's Wikipedia to my rescue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant%27s_antinomies
The mathematical antinomies
The first antinomy (of space and time)Thesis:The world has a beginning in time, and is also limited as regards space.
Anti-thesis:The world has no beginning, and no limits in space; it is infinite as regards both time and space.
The second antinomy (of atomism)Thesis:Every composite substance in the world is made up of simple parts, and nothing anywhere exists save the simple or what is composed of the simple.
Anti-thesis:No composite thing in the world is made up of simple parts, and there nowhere exists in the world anything simple.
The dynamical antinomies
The third antinomy (of spontaneity and causal determinism)Thesis:Causality in accordance with laws of nature is not the only causality from which the appearances of the world can one and all be derived. To explain these appearances it is necessary to assume that there is also another causality, that of Spontaneity.
Anti-thesis:There is no Spontaneity; everything in the world takes place solely in accordance with laws of nature.
The fourth antinomy (of necessary being or not)Thesis:There belongs to the world, either as its part or as its cause, a being that is absolutely necessary.
Anti-thesis:An absolutely necessary being nowhere exists in the world, nor does it exist outside the world as its cause.
The scientists investigating space, times, matter, the origins of the universe, quantum physics struggled with antinomies but progressed so we now have a gasp on some very profound bedrock physics and reality that at first blush is hard to swallow. Solvay conferences from 1911 to 1927 brought together the scientists attempting to describe, persuade, coerce, and puzzle over quantum mechanics and this budding science of everything and nothing. Heisenberg and his group (including Borg) were arguing with Einstein and others over the strange ideas that the observer seemed to have an influence on the experiments results in studying the very very small in the quantum science. These issues have troubled scientists to the present with proving the entanglement experiments are real so information can be signaled across space instantaneously (faster than the speed of light) which seems to go counter to Einstein's theory of Special Relativity. This real world entanglement issues now allows us to think of developing a quantum computer using qubits. Besides the Critique of Reasoning of Kant, Einstein's General Theory of Relativity which describes gravity as distortions of space and time by objects of mass requires us to rethink our understanding of space, gravity, and time. For example, with regular Euclidean geometry straight lines exist in nature in space but with General Relativity gravity is space curved and distorted by large mass objects (small objects with mass have a less obvious effect) change straight line Euclidean geometry so accuracy using this system is gone. The quantum science and our understanding of space, time, and the speed of light are investigations that are ongoing, in which data is analyze, theories are being tested, and we're delving now further back into the origins of the universe and the big bang. Our minds that are trained in these areas can have an understanding of reality that is quite different from our cognitive sensory systems interpretation of reality (related to my interest in antinomies).
So back in 1913 Niels Bohr demonstrated that electron jump instantaneously into higher or lower orbits when the scientist observes them but they don't seem to exist unless observed. Around the same time young Jorg Borge an Argentinian writer wrote that human being's sense of consciousness and identity over time was little else than a desperate illusion hiding an existential void. Then Heisenberg proposed that nature was really weird so that the more precise you are in pinpointing the position of an atomic (very small) object the more uncertain you are of its velocity. The uncertainty principle made prediction impossible so one of the cornerstones of reality seemed in jeopardy i.e. the universe is governed by rules, cause and effect, so in the quantum world of the very small this does not apply! In 1781 Kant wrote in his Critique of Pure Reason that time and space were human constructs we create by using our minds to understand the world. He states what is very obvious that the knowledge of the world we have is man made. Further, that we perceive the world through our senses therefore built in error of true reality is inherent. So Borge wrote the story of Funes The Memorious, a very unusual person who had a phenomenal ability to remember details of his day with such clarity he could give the questioner a very accurate description of these detail. His feats of memory were so all consuming that he could not function well even caring for himself and he could not reason or separate himself from his memories. Borge concluded that our reasoning faculties depend on our ability to forget certain details. The more you relive the past the less it is past becoming the present and vanishing quickly. In 1942 Heisenberg wrote that science understood through thought requires language and the more precise we become of using certain words to convey our understanding to others the more we lose the essential aspect of words that is their ability to have multiple meanings. He wrote that physicists use words to define and be precise the static function of words while poets use words to convey human understanding through the dynamic function of words. Here's a quote from Kant to illustrate how words can move us to inspiration and understanding or not. (Kant had serious gastrointestinal problems which preoccupied his mind and body) "If a hypochondriacal wind should rage in the guts, what matters is the direction takes: if downwards then the result is a fart; If upwards, an apparition or heavenly inspiration" Kant, Theoretical Philosophy 335-336. In another section of his writing he pointed out that when we experience change something must remain unchanged. If we try to visual these unchanged we come into Zeno's paradox (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno%27s_paradoxes).
Max Planck was studying black box radiation. His initial experiments theories were inadequate to describe the data since he analyzed the radiation studying the wave formations on a spectrograph. Only when he studied the same data now with the math and data converting it into quantized packets of information he was able to come up with a theory that explained the radiation of energy (and entropy) he was puzzling over. The smallest packet was the planck constant and the smallest space in this packet was a certain value also and is now being investigated as a means to understand black holes further. Planck's research greatly helped Einstein understand that light and other radiation is both wave and quanta. Heisenberg found that Planck's constant was a necessary ingredient in his mathematical calculations of the uncertainty principle. Since plotting the waves in radiation was associated with uncertainty prediction in this quantum world depended on probability mathematical consideration so the quantum world was very strange since prediction now depended on probability math. Heisenberg wrote that "we have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning" (W. Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, 32). So for example, if you rerun the slit screen experiment slowing down the photon gun so that only one photon at a time goes through the detector screen beyond shows a wave interference pattern. But if you place an observer to look for the photon on the screen each time the wave interference pattern disappears! Then to make our appreciation of the weirdness of the quantum world more dramatic Ernest Schrodinger gave us entanglement so that usually two complementary particle become paired so that if you change a value such as polarization of one the other follows suit immediately with no time delay even if light years apart! (Bell's and Aspect's experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect%27s_experiment ) Einstein was freaked!
I do like Kant's take on moral choices we make. If one was born with goodness in one's heart they can not be credited for choosing a righteous path since this follows what that person was born with. But if your born with evil maxims then your wrong choices again are not your responsibility unless one posits choice to change and follow or more moral path. So being part of the experiment and therefore seemingly influencing the results by you being there as the observer and noticing a moral problems and choosing a righteous path are very much in the same ballpark.
Borges take on our place in this universe is described in his stories like The Aleph. To have a self a universe of space and time that is vast and unknowable with a past and future out of our ken. What I'm writing is an antimony since its a human construct to attempt to understands the unknowable it's not real!
Does space have an edge? Does time begin and end? Borges in The Library of Babel writes about these subjects. He wrote about a vast library which randomly wrote words from 22 letters. The librarians used the books for mystical and other purposes but the books mostly of meaningless letters also contained some gems and true art and knowledge if only we can find these volumes in the library of Babel. "for absolutely nothing that one can say has not been said countless times in countless volumes" (p.117). Our participation and interactions in our universe become meaningful to us since we have limits and must choose what to observe and experience if we have that choice. Our cosmological investigations shows us the stupendous vast universe with a history that appears to begin over 13 billion years ago. 1964 in Holmdel, New Jersey two astronomers noticed the background radiation from the big bang. No matter what direction you measured the radiation was present. We are looking in to much earlier time by looking out.
Gravity or acceleration? In one of his famous thought experiments Einstein shows us that if in a ship with constant acceleration you can not tell if the pull to the floor is gravity or acceleration. Gravity according to Einstein's theory is the warping of space and time by large objects (mass). In 1919 Arthur Eddington journeys to the Portuguese island of Principe to observe the total eclipse and his observation confirmed the theoretical findings of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Our sun bent space like a lens so we saw a star behind the sun through the bend in space create by space time mass interactions exactly as predicted by Einstein. Einstein linked time and space together now called spacetime. As you accelerate away your time slows relative to your starting point in the spacetime coordinates of your starting point. The clock in your accelerating self is ticking at the same rate as your fixed point but relative to the two points time is different. A photon traveling at the speed of light has no time. Now back to the edge of space question. Einstein shows us that spacetime is curved due to masses in space and the shape of the cosmos is spherical. His numbers calculating the amount of mass and therefore curve in spacetime did not add up so he create a fudge factor number the cosmological constant. Alexander Friedman a meteorologist and a few years later Edwin Hubble recalculated based on the red shift data and other data and opined the data showed the universe is expanding! Surprising to the uninitiated as we look in at the universes we are looking back in time that began (if there was a beginning) not in time but with time (maybe a singularity). Einstein has a conversation with Heisenberg during one of his walks. He is reported to have said we as observers and scientists never are in the presence of raw data unadorned by theory "it is the theory that decided what we observe" (p.180 The Rigor of Angels). So the uncertainty principle that hold true for calculating velocity or position also hold true for the beginning of time the singularity. To ask what came before time is a meaningless question. These questions are human question the universe as we can know it is a human construct mind bending in a similar way to me as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Kant's critique of reason showing that our understanding of the nature is not what nature does but what we know about nature.
Now I've come in our explorations to some curious coincidences. For example, in 1951 Fred Hoyle opined that the forces holding together the atomic nuclei had to be within a thousandth of their actual value for oxygen and carbon to be produced at the levels need to sustain life. In another example of these measurement coincidences dark energy is hypothesized at a value that expands the universe close to the value of Einstein's cosmological constant. Without this factor the universe would collapse on itself. These examples can give us pause since they appear anthropic, like there is a design. The furor in the scientific community over data like this has not died down but had morphed and grown. For example maybe there are many universes out there with different constants. But in our universe we see something beautiful a design some purposiveness factors at play. This brings me back to Kant who studying how our reasoning works opined that beauty and purposeless are qualities of our mind supported by our reason. What is purposiveness without purpose? Art is what we experience and we create this impression. Now let us follow along with Kant how reasoning requires us to have the ability to perceive individual objects in time and space. This ability opens the fact that we have freedom to choose what to attend to and think about, we have choice. With choice is freedom. Kant describes how as human beings we can find purpose and in error attribute individual events as if guided by the ghost in the machine. What is in common with deists and scientists confronting the improbability of our existence is awe and the sublime. The antinomy between mechanistic causality and freedom part of our human experience can lead us to awe and the sublime. Uncaused causality defined as our free will can never be known from beginning to end.
In his Consolation of Philosophy Anicus Boethius written 553 C.E. Imprisoned and awaiting his execution he wrote about his understanding of free will, morality, and fate. God is all knowing then he knows every choice a human makes and therefore there is no freedom in human actions or even in intentions. Even worse the very idea of justice vanishes since the actions of the wicked and the morally justice have been predetermined so the actor had no choice. Boethius found a way out "things are known not according to their nature but according to the nature of the one comprehending them" (p.219 The rigor of Angels). Free will is an admission of our fallibility in the face of an unknown future. Kant agreed writing against censorship. Under duress he agreed to censor some of his opinions since the authorities were hounding him and threatening him at that time. Kant proposes that an infinite regress of responsibility just as an infinite regress of causality engenders an antimony. The reason I made some choice was caused by... some past event, the lack of sleep I'm influenced by, the alcohol or drugs I'm on, the accident to my brain from a past concussion, my genetics, my cultural conditioning etc. Or the reason has to do with my situation living in chaos and destruction in Gaza as a civilian, attempting to find safety while fleeing from defending forces, etc. In summary we are human beings whose lives are lived in the mechanistic flow of time and we are rational agents who can visualize options and choose what to do.
Hugh Everett in 1956 wrote a paper of the many worlds hypothesis. Decoherence is the concept when explanation of events under study is described in the quantum world and now needs explanation using classical physics. Our science fiction writers have used these theories to create some interesting literature such as Philip Dick's the Man in the High Castle. Robert Frost's poem the Road Not Taken highlights these issues.
The Road Not Taken Launch Audio in a New Window
BY ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Mathematics when taught in school usually has equations that have commutative properties. One side of the equation equals the other. But with Heisenberg's matrices this is not so. For example, the product of an electron's observed momentum multiplied by its observed position will always be different from the product of its observed position multiplied by its momentum. What one chooses to start the measure from influences the result. The uncertainty principle demolishes the law of causality because the law depends on the premise that we know the present fully, which uncertainty show us we cannot. Since General Relativity shows that space is no longer straight, Euclidian math can not apply. Einstein and Heisenberg have change how we must understand causality and reality. Heisenberg agreed with Kant that some aspect of our knowledge of the world had to come from us and not the world. "To register something, anything at all, one must be minimally from it; one must be in a relation with it" p.278 Rigor of Time (see this article by Alan Bensley regarding scientific data, skeptical reasoning, and more mystical thinking https://secularhumanism.org/2023/11/is-god-big-enough-for-the-universe-psychological-reflections-on-religious-and-scientific-beliefs/).
No knowledge is dogma. As living beings in space and time we are determined by it but still can make choices. We are finite and have limited perspectives and therefore not the complete understanding and we have metaphysical prejudices. To me there are no angels to guide us .
Hello!
Leonard
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