Page 34 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

This, of course, applies to our percep-
tual world. The existence of the Moon is
of course obvious in the outside world.
But when we look at it, all we actually
encounter is our own perception of the
Moon.
Jeffrey M. Schwartz included
these lines regarding the fact demon-
strated by quantum physics in his
book The Mind and the Brain:

The role of observation in quantum
physics cannot be emphasized too strongly. In
classical physics [Newtonian physics], observed systems
have an existence independent of the mind that observes and probes
them. In quantum physics, however, only through an act of observa-
tion does a physical quantity come to have an actual value. 18

Schwartz also summarized the views of various physicists on
the subject:
As Jacob Bronowski wrote in The Ascent of Man,

“One aim of the physical sciences has been to give an exact picture
of the material world. One achievement of
physics in the twentieth century has been
to prove that that aim is unattainable.” . . .
Heisenberg said the concept of objective
reality “has thus evaporated.“ Writing
in 1958, he admitted that “the laws of
nature which we formulate mathe-
matically in quantum theory deal no
longer with the particles themselves
but with our knowledge of the ele-
mentary particles.” “It is wrong,”
Bohr once said, “to think that the

32