Quantum Theory — a Window to the World Beyond Physics

Abstract

It was the science of classical mechanics that made the whole idea of “reductionism” — explaining things in terms of the properties of their constituents — anathema to all who maintain that there is more to the universe then the mere relentless working of automata, eternally governed by Newton’s laws of motion. Those laws, of universal applicability, seemed to have no place for mind and spirit, for consciousness, for hope and fear, for love, for meaning, still less for free will or the workings of the divine in the affairs of the world. Of course, this was never really true — certainly Newton would not have accepted such a consequence of his ideas — essentially because the task of science is to explain human experience. The concept of experience is there at the outset; without it there is nothing for science to be about.