Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Quantum Mechanics and Objectivism

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

The single case example Harriman gave was of Franklin's conclusion that lightning was an electrical phenomenon. Franklin took discoveries about electricity from several areas, the Lynde jar, the electrical shock from the key, how the wet string performed, the smell of sulfur, etc., and from his experiment, he observed the presence of the evidence from these various pieces of puzzle fit together.

 

An understanding of the Lynde jar, or recognizing an electrical shock, the stiffening of a wet string, were based on earlier knowledge that stood on their own merits. Franklin's understanding of these various aspects of electricity allowed him to construct an experiment that exploited this knowledge and confirmed his educated surmise.

 

What is clear to me on the periodic chart, is that compounds could be broken down into elements, which could be broken down no further. An array of properties where discovered about each different element (not necessarily exhaustive, there may be more properties to discover in the future along yet to be discovered axis'.) While some elements may share a common color, or similar melting/solidifying point, or boiling/condensation point,  or be close in electrical conductivity — each element's known set of properties in total, differed in some way from every other element's properties.

 

Miss Rand, via Aristotle, in Galt's Speech,  noted that existence is identity. This is, in essence, the metaphysical. Via John, in Galt's speech, she elucidated that consciousness is identification — It is, in essence, a process which is man-made. In her journal back in 1958, she logged:

Paraphrasing myself: Philosophy tell us only that things have natures, but what these natures are is the job of specific sciences. The rest of philosophy's task is to tell us the rules by which to discover the specific natures.

 

From the same journal entry, in the two preceding sentences, she sets her course with:

"Existence exists" (or identity plus causality) is all there is to metaphysics. All the rest is epistemology.

 

I hope this is more edifying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...