Thesis: Physics often presumes an absolute perspective — an external vantage point from which reality is fully knowable — echoing theological notions of omniscience and transcendence.
Observation: Classical mechanics, general relativity, and even some interpretations of quantum mechanics often assume or imply a “God’s-eye view”: a complete, detached observer able to measure, describe, and predict the universe in its entirety. Language like “the universe from outside,” or “complete state of the system,” reinforces this assumption.
Analysis: Conceptually, the absolute observer mirrors divine omniscience. Relationality and perspectival cuts are elided: phenomena are treated as if they exist fully prior to interaction or measurement. The framework privileges external totality over embedded, interdependent processes, embedding theological residues in the very architecture of explanation.
Implication: By assuming an absolute vantage, physics risks conflating epistemology with ontology: knowing the system “completely” is mistaken for the system’s actual being. This suppresses the perspectival emergence of actuality and obscures how potential manifests within relational processes.
Conclusion: A relational ontology replaces the absolute observer with embedded, perspectival observers, acknowledging that reality unfolds through interdependent processes. Recognising the theological residue of omniscience allows physics to focus on actualisation within relation, rather than on an external, all-seeing viewpoint.
No comments:
Post a Comment