Quantum Mechanics and “Song of Myself”: Getting a Grip on Reality.
Most recent writing linking science and literature has concerned itself with challenges to the epistemological status of scientific knowledge in an attempt to demonstrate its contingency, arguing in the more radical efforts that the structures of science are no more than useful fictions. This essay...
| Published in: | Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 25 - 49 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Open Library of Humanities
Mar2003
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=9121322&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 9121322 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 05912385 ZYG jtl: Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science issn: 05912385 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2003 vid: 38 iid: 1 pid: 15576 pub: Open Library of Humanities artinfo: ui: 9121322 10.1111/1467-9744.00475 ppf: 25 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 271KB tig: atl: Quantum Mechanics and “Song of Myself”: Getting a Grip on Reality. aug: au: Schaible, R.M. affil: Lewiston–Auburn College of the University of Southern Maine email: schaible@usm.maine.edu su: Literature & science Quantum theory sug: subj: Literature & science Quantum theory keyword: Copenhagen interpretation correspondential and instrumental notions of truth delayed–choice experiment Mathematical formalism metaphysics mysticism potentia quantum facts quantum reality quantum wave function Sign signified signifier thematic formalism transcendent Self ab: Most recent writing linking science and literature has concerned itself with challenges to the epistemological status of scientific knowledge in an attempt to demonstrate its contingency, arguing in the more radical efforts that the structures of science are no more than useful fictions. This essay also includes an epistemological comparison between science and literature, but instead of making grand or meta–statements about the nature of knowing generally in the two fields, mine is a much narrower aim. My exploration entails two tasks. First, I provide a close–up look at a particular type of experiment, called the delayed–choice experiment, which clearly reveals the strangeness of the quantum world. In connection with this experiment, I discuss wave functions—mathematical expressions used by physicists to describe quantum behavior and predict the outcome of experiments involving quanta. Second, I look at Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” focusing on the meaning of the “self” in the poem. My aim is to treat the object of study in each field as a “text” and to assert and demonstrate a parallel in the strategies of thought and response between physicists (“readers”) pondering the meaning and status of a wave function and poem readers pondering the meaning and status of the poem’s self. In Whitman’s “Song” we find an attempt to understand complex aspects of human experience that are said to transcend ordinary reality, an effort for which I believe there are parallels in the attempts of modern physicists to understand complex, nonintuitive aspects of the subatomic world. While not making the kind of broad claims eschewed above, I do suggest that this focused study has interesting implications since both the wave function and the poem’s self force their respective sets of “readers” to confront questions of ultimacy—to consider, that is, epistemological and ontological issues of more than passing interest to students of science as well as those of metaphysics and theology. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science is the property of Open Library of Humanities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science holder: Open Library of Humanities dt: @attributes: year: 2003 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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