The subject- object distinction in philosophy became more
important to science with the rise of investigation of forces, particles and
quanta. It was mostly a philosophical concern before, as most people accepted
the naïve realism that held that observers could discovery the mechanics of
objects. Logical Positivism most
notably formalized by A.J. Ayer in Language, Truth and Logic (1936) was a kind
of radical empiricism that destroyed metaphysics as a valid concern of
philosophy. W.V.O. Quine in his Two
Dogmas of Empiricism demolished the epistemology of empiricism and logical
positivism. He showed that the reef of solipsism in effect, cannot be overcome;
individuals as subjects perceive and exist without being able to separate themselves
from their own perceptions and thoughts, or intensions as Heidegger might have
termed cognitive mind. Quantum mechanics reinforced the concept of observers affecting
quanta simply by measuring them. An observation collapses the wave function
because a wave is everyplace and a point position is a particular place and has
no speed (plainly and artificial construct in some respects as far as particles
are concerned).
Schrodinger’s wave equation; “The Schrodinger wave equation is a mathematical expression describing the energy and
position of the electron in space and time, taking into account the matter wave
nature of the electron inside an atom” https://byjus.com/jee/schrodinger-wave-equation/#:~:text=The%20Schrodinger%20wave%20equation%20is,the%20electron%20inside%20an%20atom.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR23uxZruhE
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zoVhVpqcxL0
Naïve reality is complex. One knows that math and words
are products of the human mind and neither exists in nature. Sure animals have
some language, yet if the words animals used represented meaningful objects and
concerns the words would still simply exist in the animal’s mind. Nature is
without language. Language belongs to sentient beings. Ideas about how words
apply to objects may be incorrect, yet exist within a lexicon of humans rather
than in nature. Nature would be indifferent if oranges were named footballs; it
is humans that would care.
All of the mass of the Universe potentially could be described
as an object and given a name. The Higgs field or some greater hosting field
that includes the Higgs hosts the energy slowed down such that it appears to
have mass. Energy is convertible to mass and vice versa as Einstein proved. The
subject object distinction being effaced philosophically as brought many
changes to the way people think about reality. Some go so far as to claim
nothing exists including themselves, or that others create all of common realty
with their mind, or that the individual mind creates all of realty.
There are practical consequences for ending the subject-object
distinction for science. It will allow more discoveries of the realm of being
that does manifest itself as a Universe to human observers as observers realize
they are part of the Universe being observed as well as the problem that arises
because they are limited to what Immanuel Kant realized was a limit for human
knowledge. Kant thought the phenomena was what people could be aware of and
that noumenona was the unknown existing beyond the reef of solipsism as Sartre
termed it.
Bishop Berkeley of course invented ideaism popularly
called idealism. In his Three Dialogues
he described perception and existence that could be created by God or a
demi-urge tricking the individual to believe that reality is empirical and
objective when it is just senses being stimulated to make it seem that way.
Berkeley was a couple hundred years ahead of the Matrix in speculating how a
mind could be made to believe reality is real when it is just a product of a Superior
Being. A human mind could exist in a jar or as computer code in a greatly
advanced system and made to believe it is experiencing objective reality.
Complex and interesting topics... Some have faith in the
Lord and yet enjoy scientific method and logical investigations. Others detach
from reality, or rather, the common realm of human experience and focus on
pleasure, yet others believe nothing is real. I believe there may be three or
four kinds of modern human outlook. One is to have faith, two is to believe
just in science and observation, the third is to believe in nothing and the
fourth is to focus on please or work and avoid thinking about it.