Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:11:10.530Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Minds and values in the quantum universe

from Part II - Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2010

By
Henry Stapp
Edited by
Paul Davies  and
Niels Henrik Gregersen
Paul Davies
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Niels Henrik Gregersen
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Get access

Summary

Copenhagen is the perfect setting for our discussion of matter and information. We have been charged ‘to explore the current concept of matter from scientific, philosophical, and theological perspectives’. The essential foundation for this work is the output of the intense intellectual struggles that took place here in Copenhagen during the twenties, principally between Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli. Those struggles replaced the then-prevailing Newtonian idea of matter as ‘solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles’ with a new concept that allowed, and in fact demanded, entry into the laws governing the motion of matter of the consequences of decisions made by human subjects. This change in the laws swept away the meaningless billiard-ball universe, and replaced it with a universe in which we human beings, by means of our intentional effort, can make a difference in how the ‘matter’ in our bodies behaves.

THE ROLE OF MIND IN NATURE

Unfortunately, most of the prevailing descriptions of quantum theory tend to emphasize puzzles and paradoxes in a way that makes philosophers, theologians, and even non-physicist scientists leery of actually using in any deep way the profound changes in our understanding of human beings in nature wrought by the quantum revolution. Yet, properly presented, quantum mechanics is thoroughly in line with our deep human intuitions. It is the 300 years of indoctrination with basically false ideas about how nature works that now makes puzzling a process that is completely in line with normal human intuition.

Type
Chapter
Information
Information and the Nature of Reality
From Physics to Metaphysics
 , pp. 104 - 120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beauregard, M., Schwartz, J., and Stapp, H.P. (2005). Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: A neurophysical model of mind-brain interaction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 360(1458): 1309–1327.Google Scholar
Bohr, N. (1958). Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. Reprinted in 1987 as The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr, Vol. II. Woodbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. (1958). Physics and Philosophy: the Revolution in Modern Science. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Stapp, H. P. (2005). Quantum interactive dualism: An alternative to materialism. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12(11): 43–59.Google Scholar
Stapp, H. P. (2006). Quantum Interactive Dualism: The Libet and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen Causal Anomalies. Erkenntnis, 65(1): 117–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stapp, H. P. (2007a). Quantum approaches to consciousness. In The Cambridge Handbook for Consciousness, eds. Zelazo, P. D., Moscovitch, M., and Thompson, E.. New York: Cambridge University Press, 881–908.Google Scholar
Stapp, H. P. (2007b). Quantum mechanical theories of consciousness. In The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, eds. Velmans, M. and Schneider, S.. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 300–312.Google Scholar
Neumann, J. (1955). Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton: University Press.Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. N. (1978). Process and Reality, corrected ed, eds. Griffin, D. R. and Sherburne, D.. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×