The quantum phenomenon as an aspect of objective reality was a more or less accidental discovery by the turn of the 20th century that no one (philosopher, scientist or thinker) could even anticipate in their wildest imagination. But within its short life span, the quantum phenomena have revolutionized modern natural science and technology. The major part of modern life is dependent on the various aspect of this phenomenon. As a scientific tool it provides the most accurate results ever achieved by man; about the smallest and the largest objects of Nature and Life.
But ironically, if we go by the following quotes from the people who were instrumental in developing and working with this phenomenon; it remains as unfathomable and enigmatic aspect of objective reality as ever before! Why this disconnect? Is it possible to do anything about it?
1. “If it is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science”. Albert Einstein
2. "If someone says that he can think about quantum physics without becoming dizzy, that shows only that he has not understood anything whatever about it." Niels Bohr
3. “I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it”. Erwin Schrödinger
4. “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics”. Richard Feynman
5. “If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it”. John Wheeler
6. “Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense”. Roger Penrose
https://www.researchgate.net/project/CAUSALITY-AND-DIALECTICS-THEIR-CONFLICTING-ROLES-IN-MODERN-PHILOSOPHY-AND-NATURAL-SCIENCE-PARTICULARLY-IN-THEORETICAL-PHYSICS
I simply would like to point out that quantum mechanics do not "make sense" to us humans because they do not accommodate our everyday macroscopic experience. They absolutely make sense from the mathematical point of view, its just really hard to develop any kind of intuition. From a Kantian perspective, the experience of quantum mechanics maybe could be considered devoid of space. On the other hand, assuming that the physical laws that govern the universe should be something we are even remotely familiar with is, in my honest opinion, quite naïve.
Dear Prof. Laplaza,
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I agree with you that our understanding in detail of the physical processes of the universe (though substantial by now in my opinion and in a historical sense) is still very limited and will always remain limited. But I strongly disagree with your somewhat pessimistic view of human potential and ability to acquire knowledge of the world.
If we accept Kantian “unknowable thing-in-itself”, then it makes no sense for us even to try to know anything at all, not to speak of knowing the laws of Nature! All the prominent followers of Kant, Schelling, Fichte and particularly Hegel accepted Kant’s “logical categories” but unceremoniously rejected the Master’s “unknowable thing-in-itself” and no one ever revived this dead horse!
As Engels pointed out, with the dialectics of Hegel, philosophy in the conventional sense comes to a close. This is because Hegel comprehended the key to the understanding of all development, change and motion in this world and showed a practical way to follow this motion and development in the realm of nature, history and thought. At the same time Hegel proved (in spite of his “Absolute Idea”) the futility of searching for eternal and absolute truth, which was the aim of all previous philosophy. If everything in this world is a process in eternal change and not a ready-made or a finished product given once for all, then no final and absolute truth is ever to be found.
All knowledge is necessarily limited and conditioned by the circumstances and the time in which it was acquired. Philosophy in the form of materialist dialectics (of Marx) then become a part of the positive sciences, seeking progressively better limited, relative, tentative and conditional truth and summing up this knowledge through the very general dialectical laws that seem to operate at all levels of objective reality – from the macrocosm to the microcosm; as modern science including quantum electrodynamics demonstrates.
Classical mechanics (like the fact that we are living on a moving planet, "Eppure si muove") already doesn't accomodate our intuition (like the fact that we are living on a moving planet, "Eppure si muove.") Quantum mechanics is no exception in the whole history of science. Our everyday experience isn't about scientific description, but about extracting pertinent information from a very complexe surrounding.
Historically, quantum mechanics has been the occasion of a big renonciation, which took along a renonciation even of philosophy. Today, we confort ourselves with more or less correct statements of "success," a word that never appeared before about a scientific theory, not even about general relativity. But history isn't completely written yet.
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