https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/837542
The recent publication of a cutting-edge physics experiment revealed that entangled photons returned a holographic image that looks identical to the Yin/Yang symbol of Taoism and Holism. The article was quickly reproduced in other publications, but I was surprised that no one expressed surprise at the irony that a state-of-the-art Western scientific photographic technique produced an image traditionally used to symbolically portray the holistic philosophical worldview of an ancient Eastern philosophy.
Since the philosophy of Holism is typically considered to be antithetical to the method of Reductionism, characteristic of Western Science, I thought this presumably-objective evidence might provide fodder for a calm intellectual dialog on this rational philosophical forum. BTW, the "holographic" heading below is intended to be both provocative and tongue-in-cheek. The relevant question here : is the image a mere coincidence or a consonance?
PS__A secondary question that might be illuminated : is this forum polarized along physics vs metaphysics, eastern vs western, science vs philosophy lines on an evocative topic like this? Or is it open to Consilience, as suggested by beleaguered biologist E. O. Wilson?
PPS__Tertiary question : Is a wave-function a physical particle or a symbolic-metaphysical-mental-mathematical concept, or . . . . ?
YIN/YANG PHYSICS & SEMIOLOGY
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Holographic image reveals Holistic nature of Nature :
Researchers at the University of Ottawa, . . . . recently demonstrated a novel technique that allows the visualization of the wave function of two entangled photons, the elementary particles that constitute light, in real-time.
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-visualizi ... otons.html
Consilience : agreement between the approaches to a topic of different academic subjects, especially science and the humanities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consilience_(book)
Entanglement is a mysterious quantum phenomenon that is widely, but mistakenly, described as capable of transmitting information over vast distances faster than the speed of light. It has proved very popular with science writers, philosophers of science, and many scientists who hope to use the mystery to deny some of the basic concepts underlying quantum physics. Beyond this claim, which violates the principle of relativity, is the claim that entanglement "connects" every particle in the universe with every other particle, implying a "holistic" or "implicate" order in the universe, which is popular with "new age" thinkers and other mystics who see in it pan-psychism, or "cosmic consciousness," or at a minimum "telepathic powers" between entangled minds.
https://www.informationphilosopher.com/proble