Monday 21 January 2013

Realism in Science

Most people want science to capture the real world. Plato used the allegory of the cave and shadows of the real world projected onto the walls. The shadows never capture the reality of being able to look out of the cave. The view is never impartial, it always depends on what passes in front of the cave. The Greeks also had the idea of an absolute definition - that things defined b a word exist separate to humans creating that word. A chair once defined exists distinct from its context. Wittgenstein continued this idea. All objects contain what they are forever. Copenhagen rejected this objective realism. The observer and the context define what we see. If a tree falls and there is nobody there to hear it then it made no noise. This is a very anthropomorphic view of the universe as it needs humans as observers. Who observed the big bang?

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