The Atomic War of the 19th Century, 2 of 2

See part 1...

Category:

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Tags:

• David
• Harriman
• Objectivist
• Peikoff
• Rand
• physics
• science
• modern
• philosophy
• quantum
• mechanics
• wave
• theory
• atomic
• atom

[nine9s]

1) I've sometimes wondered if the particle/wave of light might be a wave caused by the moving particle.

2) "Science was born as a result and consequence of philosophy; it cannot survive without a philosophical (particularly existential) base. If philosophy perishes, science will be the next to go." Rand, "For the New Intellectual."

[cropperb]

particle/wave: Harriman actually mentions a French physicists from the 1800's who made the first steps in a theory explaining it as a particle whose motion causes the wave phenomena, so it is a particle embedded in a wave, which wave the particle is sitself causing and therefore a part of. I think it was Bohme, but I'm not certain...

[nine9s]

That's fascinating. I wonder why the idea was abandoned. Maybe once the "ether" theory was abandoned they didn't know what the wave could be traveling through. (Dark matter? Space-time? Who knows?) I've tried looking up Bohme and all I found was a German composer and a few mystics.

[cropperb]

I'll try to get the exact quote from the speech. Harriman said he reagarded it as a tragic story in the hisotry of science because the guy who proposed it (Bohme?) was ridiculed for trying to asign identity to subatmic phenomena, which was a no-no. Still is today with quantum unknowables.

[soccom8341576]

I think we can get reality right. It just so happens that due to our preconceived impressions, that causes us to diverge from the truth.

You have to get metaphysics first to get the natural senses.

But frankly, since we are part of this universe, we can understand it, and that there is still the possibility that we affect things when we measure it.

I'm happy with quantum theory as long as it doesn't break any logic.