Relational realism: The evolution of ontology to praxiology in the philosophy of nature

World Futures 65 (1):19 – 41 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

With the advent of quantum theory, the philosophical distinction between “what appears to be” and “what is reasoned to be” has once again, after several centuries of easy dismissal by classical mechanistic materialism, become an important feature of physics. In recent well-regarded interpretations of quantum physics, including those proposed by Robert Griffiths, Roland Omn s, and Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann, we have seen careful investigations into the physical (i.e., not “merely philosophical”) distinction between the order of contingent causal relation and the order of necessary logical implication . I argue that a careful philosophical exploration of the function of the logical order in modern interpretations of quantum physics compels the abandonment of derivative classical, dualistic understandings of “determinism versus indeterminism,” “logical necessity versus causal contingency,” “subject versus object,” “epistemic versus ontological,” among other fundamental dualisms. The incoherence underlying this classical understanding of these principle-pairs as mutually exclusive features of reality can be relieved if they are instead understood as mutually implicative features of fundamental units of relation or “quantum praxes.”.

Other Versions

reprint Epperson, Michael (2010) "Relational Realism: The Evolution of Ontology to Praxiology in the Philosophy of Nature". Process Studies 39(2):373-374

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 97,154

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-02-01

Downloads
108 (#169,860)

6 months
14 (#354,049)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Michael Epperson
California State University, Sacramento

References found in this work

Process and reality: an essay in cosmology.Alfred North Whitehead - 1929 - New York: Free Press. Edited by David Ray Griffin & Donald W. Sherburne.
Physics and philosophy: the revolution in modern science.Werner Heisenberg - 1958 - Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen.

View all 10 references / Add more references