Suspended in Language: Quantum Perspectives on Postmodernism, History and Historiography

In this thesis, I seek to analyze the postmodern condition in history from a quantum-philosophical perspective. According to the famous physicist Niels Bohr, (our knowledge of) the quantum object cannot be meaningfully separated from the instruments used to interrogate and represent the quantum object. The instrument intervenes into the quantum universe in a way that allows for comprehensible knowledge of the quantum object. In turn, Bohr presents a conception of scientific objectivity that acknowledges and incorporates this meaningful intervention. In my thesis, I present a detailed analysis of Bohr’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, connecting his insights to the issue of subjectivity in history and historiography. I present an interpretative framework, inspired by quantum-philosophical perspectives, which integrates the subjective processes of observing, constructing and writing history into a new conception of historical realism. Like Bohr’s quantum philosophy, this...Show moreIn this thesis, I seek to analyze the postmodern condition in history from a quantum-philosophical perspective. According to the famous physicist Niels Bohr, (our knowledge of) the quantum object cannot be meaningfully separated from the instruments used to interrogate and represent the quantum object. The instrument intervenes into the quantum universe in a way that allows for comprehensible knowledge of the quantum object. In turn, Bohr presents a conception of scientific objectivity that acknowledges and incorporates this meaningful intervention. In my thesis, I present a detailed analysis of Bohr’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, connecting his insights to the issue of subjectivity in history and historiography. I present an interpretative framework, inspired by quantum-philosophical perspectives, which integrates the subjective processes of observing, constructing and writing history into a new conception of historical realism. Like Bohr’s quantum philosophy, this historical realism considers the instruments for observation and representation as inseparable from yet meaningfully constitutive of the historical object.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Suspended in Language: Quantum Perspectives on Postmodernism, History and Historiography