Putting the Fire in the Equations; Generating multilevel dynamical processes in Physics and Psychology

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4.1 Classical and Quantum Dispositions With the progress of physics we hope that we discover ultimate constituents which have many definite properties (e.g. mass, shape, position, velocity, energy etc.), and only a few of those peculiar dispositional properties (e.g. perfect elasticity, gravitational attraction, and electric charge, etc.).   In that way there might be a minimum number of these peculiar dispositions or potentialities, which seem like `occult powers', and are to be avoided where possible. Such would be the case if Newtonian physics were true. Quantum physics shows, however, that this hope is not satisfied.   In the quantum world there are in fact more kinds of dispositions than in Newtonian physics. For the properties of position and velocity, previously thought quite definite, now may or may not have definite values.     Position and velocity seem to behave more like dispositional properties or secondary qualities, in that they may or may not have definite values according to experimental circumstances. In the quantum world, it turns out, there are very few non-dispositional properties, i.e. very few properties that always have perfectly definite values. In particular, there is no such thing as a corpuscle with a definite size and shape: quantum particles can be spread out over a whole crystals, or compressed into a volumes smaller than an atomic nucleus, depending on which different experiment we choose to perform.       For this reason, physicists such as de Broglie and Schrödinger have proposed that particles are really patterns of waves like the electro-magnetic fields mentioned earlier. We know that waves can be spread out and be focused again. In fact, some experiments support the idea of particles, and others the idea of waves!

    

Author: I.J. Thompson (except as stated)

Email: IJT@generativescience.org