Reality Final: Why Ask Why?
Date
1994
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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Thesis (B.A.)
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en_US
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Abstract
Up until about the turn of the century, 1900 that is, scientists were rather
comfortable with their mastery of our world. Their physical laws had explained every
experienced phenomenon for hundreds of years. In the early 1900's this comfort would
turn into a panic that would last almost the whole 20th century. The belief that "we
only know what we can measure" got scientists in and out' (and back in, etc.) of a lot of
trouble. Not only would the dassicallaws of physics be disproved, but our entire view
of reality would be challenged and eventually vanquished by the new set of laws,
Quantum Mechanics. Unfortunately, there has yet to be an adequate interpretation of
Quantum Mechanics which has been found to work in all experiments so far.
Scientists are stuck with a set of laws, the Quantum Theory's postulates, but no view of
reality that works with them. This has, of course, been very unsettling for many in the
world of science and has left some of the best logical minds of our time speechlessly
reverting to the concept of a deity to explain what their experiments keep telling them:
Quantum Theory works.