Hans Grelland

Physics, like all science, is grown out of a desire to understand the world. However, modern physics with its mathematical form has become increasingly removed from the world of everyday experience and visual imagination. In quantum mechanics it is impossible to visualize the reality represented by the theory. All we have is a consistent mathematical structure. Although the theory works perfectly well instrumentally, the question remains, how can the mathematics of the theory impart understanding? If we look at mathematics as a language, we are faced with the semantic problem: how does the language of mathematics acquire meaning? In an attempt to answer this question, I study Derrida’s early critique of Husserl’s intuitionism and Wittgenstein's picture theory of language. I also introduce Paul A. M. Dirac as having similar notions of quantum mechanics as expressed in this article.

Human existence implies a variety of activities. We perceive, we act, we communicate with others, we feel, we think, we imagine. How much of this activity is determined by given conditions, be it permanent traits of character or external physical or social conditions, and how much is an expression of freedom? What do we choose, for what can we be considered responsible? When I sit and let my thoughts wander freely, one after another emerges. Is it I who choose which thoughts I think? Could I have chosen to think other thoughts? Am I responsible for the fact that this thought and not another emerges? If I am not responsible, will there be any responsibility left at all? Is it not possible to trace also the deliberate and reflected choices that I make back to an origin of thoughts which spontaneously occur?

Human existence implies a variety of activities. We perceive, we act, we communicate with others, we feel, we think, we imagine. How much of this activity is determined by given conditions, be it permanent traits of character or external physical or social conditions, and how much is an expression of freedom? What do we choose, for what can we be considered responsible? When I sit and let my thoughts wander freely, one after another emerges. Is it I who choose which thoughts I think? Could I have chosen to think other thoughts? Am I responsible for the fact that this thought and not another emerges? If I am not responsible, will there be any responsibility left at all? Is it not possible to trace also the deliberate and reflected choices that I make back to an origin of thoughts which spontaneously occur?