Having at length satisfied ourselves as to the reality, or
at least reliability, of coffee-cups, would should not on that account sink back into an
attitude of Moorean complacency (“I’m all right, Jack; I’ve got hands”). For our commitment to these suggests yet further commitments, which
we had not realized were there to assess.
Such as : Realism with
regard to quantum state vectors.
The question of ‘reality’ must be addressed in quantum mechanics
-- especially if you takes the view that the quantum formalism applies
universally to the whole of physics -- for then, if there is no quantum
reality, there can be no reality at any level.
-- Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality (2004), p. 508
And:
The question of the objective
existence of the objects of mathematics … is an exact replica of the question
of the objective existence of the outer world.
-- Kurt Gödel, “What is Cantor’s
continuum problem?”, in American Mathematical Monthly, 1947.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
No comments:
Post a Comment