2006/10/31 by James B. Hartle, James B Hartle
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #CLARITY #Context (archaeology) #Human language #Macroscopic quantum phenomena #Philosophy and History of Science #Quantum #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Science Education and Pedagogy #Subatomic particle #Verb #gr-qc #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1751-8113/40/12/s13
published as J.Phys.A40:3101-3121,2007 · Contribution to the festschrift for G.C. Ghirardi on his 70th Birthday, minor corrections
arxiv created 2006/12/19 · openalex publication_date 2007/03/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
Human languages employ constructions that tacitly assume specific properties of the limited range of phenomena they evolved to describe. These assumed properties are true features of that limited context, but may not be general or precise properties of all the physical situations allowed by fundamental physics. In brief, human languages contain `excess baggage' that must be qualified, discarded, or otherwise reformed to give a clear account in the context of fundamental physics of even the everyday phenomena that the languages evolved to describe. The surest route to clarity is to express the constructions of human languages in the language of fundamental physical theory, not the other way around. These ideas are illustrated by an analysis of the verb `to happen' and the word `reality' in special relativity and the modern quantum mechanics of closed systems.