2019/04/14 by Ruth E. Kastner, Stuart Kauffman, Michael Epperson · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Medicine · Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #Philosophy and History of Science #Psychology
paper · doi:10.1142/9781786346421_0011
openalex publication_date 2019/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
It is argued that quantum theory is best understood as requiring an ontological duality of res extensa and res potentia, where the latter is understood per Heisenberg’s original proposal, and the former is roughly equivalent to Descartes’ ‘extended substance.’ However, this is not a dualism of mutually exclusive substances in the classical Cartesian sense, and therefore does not inherit the infamous ‘mind-body’ problem. Rather, res potentia and res extensa are proposed as mutually implicative ontological extants that serve to explain the key conceptual challenges of quantum theory; in particular, nonlocality, entanglement, null measurements, and wave function collapse. It is shown that a natural account of these quantum perplexities emerges, along with a need to reassess our usual ontological commitments involving the nature of space and time.