The Emergent Aspect Dualism View of Quantum Physics: A New Ontology to Resolve the Complementarity Conundrum

Abstract

To resolve the conceptual problem of the conflict between quantal and relativistic formulations of Quantum Physics, this paper proposes a new conceptual ontology, Emergent Aspect Dualism, that reconceptualizes the foundations of the field. Emergent Aspect Dualism is a philosophical approach that starts from the assumption is that the primary “material” of the universe is energy, which can be manifested as kinetic energy, potential energy or matter. The flow of such energy throughout the universe is described by the continuous Schrödinger Equation, but in order to account for the hierarchy of levels of organization reality, we need to invoke the concept of emergence, under which the operative principles of each level of organization of this energy are entirely dissociated from those of the levels below it, and, crucially, the functional emergence of the properties of the conscious mind that are dualistically dissociated from the underlying biochemical principles of brain organization. Rather than assigning probabilities to the quantal realm, Emergent Aspect Dualism treats probability as an operational concept that can be held only by a conscious mind, a philosophical category that incorporates the properties of a) the superposition of states and b) the collapse of this superposition once an observation is made.