In this clip from the documentary, "The Wisdom of China: Laozi," Professor Bryan Van Norden of Vassar College discusses how Nobel Laureate in Physics Neils Bohr was indebted to the philosophy of Daoists like Laozi.
I did not know Bohr was so connected to Daoist ideas. Must learn more about this. Thank you for the brief video, hope there is an extended version coming soon.
Reminds me of many restaurants that assume that the reason you dine there is not to converse with your friends but to listen to their chosen music. The odd thing about growing older is that your hearing deteriorates at the same time that your sensitivity to noise sharpens.
Wow this was eye opening for me. I am very happy to hear that Niels Bohr was heavily influenced by Daoism. One thing most westerners get wrong about the concept of Yin and Yang is that they are opposites and two seperate things. Yin and Yang should more accurately be described as aspects of the same thing just at different ends of the spectrum. That is why they each contain elements of the other to show that they are the same not at all opposite. Like a coin has a front and back but it is still one coin. So instead of interpreting Yin and Yang as opposites they should be thought of in terms of extremes of the same spectrum just at different ends. Like hot and cold, light and dark or loud and quiet which are measured in varying degrees of.
Beautifully presented. Information is the most fundamental. "It is operationally impossible to separate Reality and Information" -- Quantum Information Physicist and 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Anton Zeilinger
Thank you so much. I Have been matching Eastern Philosophy with Quantum mechanics in my contemplations but I am no scientist so keep these thoughts to myself. This is where science meets philosophy. Your work is appreciated. Thank you.
It's true that modern QM challenges Aristotlean logic, but I'm inclined to think that they can be reconciled. The idea that things contain "opposites" and that this plays a role in change isn't really something I would think Aristotle would object to on the grounds of it being contradictory. Aristotle talks about "contrarieties" like hot/cold, light/dark that are pairs of "opposites" but aren't contradictory. Cold isn't the absence of heat (to aristotle (and arguably to us phenomenologically)), but for some reason, we never observe something that is both hot and cold at the same time, and we intuitively understand them as being opposed in some sense. If something is both hot and cold, that wouldn't be contradictory on aristotles view. It might make the most sense to split the object up into hot and cold parts, but Aristotle doesn't even need to do that to make it consistent with his law of non-contradiction. The clip sort of gives the impression that Aristotle's logic can't accomodate that, or other common sense examples of things being in tension with itself, when it can.
good morning , could you please remix this video with less music, each phrase, each comment is so important, but had to be rewound to recognize many times thank you for posting this
yes, I almost turned the video off because of that but kept going because the information is so important. I will try again with no sound and will just read the captions
The music is apposite ….. Eastern theme music reinforcing indeterminacy of quantum states, which resonates with Taoism or Daoism. Bohr would have loved it! Perhaps schroedinger and his cat would have concurred ? 😂 presuming the cat survived when observed. 🎉
@@bernardofitzpatrick5403 If there was a stereo in Schrödinger's box, that was either on or off when observed, it would improve the chances of there not being any background music 😀
Even the greatest of mathematicians look to the spiritual realm for inspiration in spite of adherence to a discipline based upon factual data and laws.
...I would like to add a thought for everyone to consider. Time/Space moves as a Turbulent Flow, including Eddie's & Vortices created by others which explains why we can know where we are, our speed and direction, yet we might reach out destination, an interruption, accident occurs, respectfully, ordinarychuck hotmail...captivus brevis...you tube...Blessings...
“Tao Te Ching” was an inspiring book to me while I learned and practised tai chi for a long time. I also have interest in Quantum Physics and have tired to read a lot about the great scientists of the past century trying so hard to come to grips with the fundamental constituents of the Universe. But I cannot reconcile a book replete with mystical paradoxes (while thought provoking and instructive) with Science and especially its empirical side. Hindus make claim about their sacred books and mystics as having apprehended Reality a long time ago. Schoepenhauer and Oppenheimer said they were inspired by Hindu texts. But are they scientific? (I do not think so).
Modern science is "replete with mystical paradoxes" too! Light is both a wave and a particle. Schrödinger's cat is both dead and alive. An astronaut traveling on a space ship close to the speed of light will return to earth younger than her twin. Which event occurs first in time depends upon your frame of reference.
@@BryanVanNordenPhilosophy It's Schrödinger's cat, not Heisenberg's. Heisenberg is known for his cut, not his cat 🙂 Schrödinger's thought experiment was actually a critique of the Copenhagen interpretation, saying that a whole animal being be both dead and alive at the same time means there's a problem with this interpretation. Still, it did become part of the foundation of quantum mechanics, while some physicists (Roger Penrose for example) are still looking for other explanations.
The enigmatic quantum theory has been an interesting topic of discussion for a while with no end in sight. I read Capra's book "The Tao of Physics" in 1975 when it came out. An interesting read as I recollect. Capra actually discussed his book idea with Heisenberg. Me... I struggle trying to picture quarks haha. 😱 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Physics
