John Wheeler's Anthropic Theory philosophers language maya and brahman
The language philosophers are not alone in their questioning of the presuppositions of the logical positivists. Today, science itself is presenting theories that contradict a belief in an empirical reality.
John Wheeler is a physicist best known popularly for coining the term "black hole." He is a prominent advocate of Quantum Theory. You may have seen Wheeler without knowing it if you saw the documentary film director Errol Morris's A Brief History of Time. Morris's documentary signature is to present one-sided interviews in which the interviewer is never shown or acknowledged and the interviewee is never named. Wheeler often appears talking about Stephen Hawkings in this documentary biography.
I was lucky to see Wheeler in the early 1980s when he went on tour to deliver presentations of his Anthropic Theory to physics departments around the country. I was teaching at North Carolina State University at the time and my office mate, Porter Williams Jr., although a Shakespeare scholar, was also interested in innovative science. So, Porter invited me along with him to Wheeler's lecture.
Wheeler was a great speaker and put on quite a show - his ideas were so clearly presented that even those of us who knew very little physics could understand his basic thesis. His Anthropic Theory was that humans and the machines they build - specifically physicists and instruments they use to observe and verify phenomena - were responsible for the creation of the phenomenal world. Thus "anthropic," putting man back into the center of things.
Wheeler began by simply explaining the subject matter of physics. He said that physicists study phenomena and that the term "phenomena" has a precise definition. Phenomena can only be called "phenomena," according to Wheeler, after they have been observed and verified. Other things might exist, he admitted, but for the scientist the subject matter to be studied must first be demonstrated to be phenomena. This idea is certainly not extreme. Scientists must use the scientific method or they are not scientists, and the scientific method begins with observation. Of course, if only one person claims to have observed something, his or her observation cannot be used to begin the scientific process because the thing observed must be verified in order to begin the method. Once observed and verified the subject matter is established to be phenomena and scientific inquiry may begin.
But there is a problem today with phenomena that are very distant and phenomena that are very small. Wheeler pointed out that instruments are necessary to observe and to verify things that are too small or too far away for the human senses. The problem is that the results of the instruments differ depending on what instrument is used. Of course according to common sense, the nature of reality cannot depend upon which instrument we use to observe it, but the nature of phenomena, according to Wheeler, does!
Wheeler then gave us a demonstration of his theory. He had an instrument that he claimed could be used to observe and verify photons. These elemental portions of light entered the instrument through a small slit at one end and hit a photographic plate at the other end. This was the only way to observe and verify the photon. However, if the photographic plate was rigid and stationary the result of the observation was that the photon was a particle. If the photographic plate was hypersensitive and could move then the result of the observation was that the photon was a wave. Wheeler had installed a button on the instrument which could be pushed by the physicist during an experiment to alter the sensitivity of the photographic plate. Wheeler then dramatically pointed his instrument toward a distant star. He said something to the effect of, "This star is ten million light years away. Of course this means that the photon that I am about to observe and verify left that star ten million years ago. If it left that star as a particle it has been a particle for ten million years. If it left that star as a wave, it has been a wave for ten million years. By pushing this button or not pushing this button, I as a physicist determine the nature of the phenomena. I reach back in time ten million years and determine the nature of the photon."
Can the logical positivist still make his or her leap of faith in the light of Wheeler's Anthropic Theory? If so, the logical positivist must admit that realities are made by human perception and are creations in which the human experience is modified by the instruments that are used, whether those instruments be the machines used by science to magnify the senses, the deep structures embedded in our brains at birth, or the languages we learn that color empirical data.
The Bahgavad Gita both celebrates and escapes this multiplicity of universes by admitting initially that everything is maya and by grounding maya in Brahman not in the human as creator and center of reality.
John Wheeler is a physicist best known popularly for coining the term "black hole." He is a prominent advocate of Quantum Theory. You may have seen Wheeler without knowing it if you saw the documentary film director Errol Morris's A Brief History of Time. Morris's documentary signature is to present one-sided interviews in which the interviewer is never shown or acknowledged and the interviewee is never named. Wheeler often appears talking about Stephen Hawkings in this documentary biography.
I was lucky to see Wheeler in the early 1980s when he went on tour to deliver presentations of his Anthropic Theory to physics departments around the country. I was teaching at North Carolina State University at the time and my office mate, Porter Williams Jr., although a Shakespeare scholar, was also interested in innovative science. So, Porter invited me along with him to Wheeler's lecture.
Wheeler was a great speaker and put on quite a show - his ideas were so clearly presented that even those of us who knew very little physics could understand his basic thesis. His Anthropic Theory was that humans and the machines they build - specifically physicists and instruments they use to observe and verify phenomena - were responsible for the creation of the phenomenal world. Thus "anthropic," putting man back into the center of things.
Wheeler began by simply explaining the subject matter of physics. He said that physicists study phenomena and that the term "phenomena" has a precise definition. Phenomena can only be called "phenomena," according to Wheeler, after they have been observed and verified. Other things might exist, he admitted, but for the scientist the subject matter to be studied must first be demonstrated to be phenomena. This idea is certainly not extreme. Scientists must use the scientific method or they are not scientists, and the scientific method begins with observation. Of course, if only one person claims to have observed something, his or her observation cannot be used to begin the scientific process because the thing observed must be verified in order to begin the method. Once observed and verified the subject matter is established to be phenomena and scientific inquiry may begin.
But there is a problem today with phenomena that are very distant and phenomena that are very small. Wheeler pointed out that instruments are necessary to observe and to verify things that are too small or too far away for the human senses. The problem is that the results of the instruments differ depending on what instrument is used. Of course according to common sense, the nature of reality cannot depend upon which instrument we use to observe it, but the nature of phenomena, according to Wheeler, does!
Wheeler then gave us a demonstration of his theory. He had an instrument that he claimed could be used to observe and verify photons. These elemental portions of light entered the instrument through a small slit at one end and hit a photographic plate at the other end. This was the only way to observe and verify the photon. However, if the photographic plate was rigid and stationary the result of the observation was that the photon was a particle. If the photographic plate was hypersensitive and could move then the result of the observation was that the photon was a wave. Wheeler had installed a button on the instrument which could be pushed by the physicist during an experiment to alter the sensitivity of the photographic plate. Wheeler then dramatically pointed his instrument toward a distant star. He said something to the effect of, "This star is ten million light years away. Of course this means that the photon that I am about to observe and verify left that star ten million years ago. If it left that star as a particle it has been a particle for ten million years. If it left that star as a wave, it has been a wave for ten million years. By pushing this button or not pushing this button, I as a physicist determine the nature of the phenomena. I reach back in time ten million years and determine the nature of the photon."
Can the logical positivist still make his or her leap of faith in the light of Wheeler's Anthropic Theory? If so, the logical positivist must admit that realities are made by human perception and are creations in which the human experience is modified by the instruments that are used, whether those instruments be the machines used by science to magnify the senses, the deep structures embedded in our brains at birth, or the languages we learn that color empirical data.
The Bahgavad Gita both celebrates and escapes this multiplicity of universes by admitting initially that everything is maya and by grounding maya in Brahman not in the human as creator and center of reality.
No comments