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Does Quantum Physics Refute Kuhn?

Posted on Jan 11th, 2008 by Joel Morrison : transempirical dentist Joel Morrison
Quantum physics was not a proper paradigm shift. It was an attempt to maintain the old classical metaphysics of the particle bias in the face of new evidence to the contrary, e.g. the "wave-nature". It wasn't a revolution, but a necessary kludge to hold the old, tacit metaphysics of Democritus and Leucippus inviolate, even at the expense of science as we know it, and the law of causality.

So, no, this type of quasi-revolution---taken about as far as it can go and on it's last legs now---simply wasn't explained or predicted by Kuhn. It just doesn't fit within his model and shows it's limitations, not its incorrectness. When taken into account, it's really a hybrid of a revolution and a normal-science saving of the phenomena. It just expands the Kuhnian toolset.

This is why quantum physics still has a "background-dependent" mathematical infrastructure, while Relativity has moved on to the post-classical infrastructure of "background-independence." In qualitative terms, this is the move from the classical "solid-bias"---a monolithic "absolute space, such as that of the solid classical ether, and leading to the solidity underlying the particle-bias---to an inherently dynamic and infinitely fluid space-time, such as that in Sorce Theory, and described mathematically, to a degree, in Relativity.
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