Quantum mind and social science : unifying physical and social ontology / Alexander Wendt, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wendt, Alexander, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Research.

Social sciences.

Quantum theory.

Physical Description:

xii, 354 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Summary:

There is an underlying assumption in the social sciences that consciousness and social life are ultimately classical physical/material phenomena. In this groundbreaking book, Alexander Wendt challenges this assumption by proposing that consciousness is, in fact, a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon. In the first half of the book Wendt justifies the insertion of quantum theory into social scientific debates, introduces social scientists to quantum theory and the philosophical controversy about its interpretation, and then defends the quantum consciousness hypothesis against the orthodox, classical approach to the mind-body problem. In the second half, he develops the implications of this metaphysical perspective for the nature of language and the Agent-Structure Problem in social ontology. Wendt's argument is a revolutionary development which raises fundamental questions about the nature of social life and the work of those who study it.

Contents:

Preface to a quantum social science

Three experiments

Six challenges

Five interpretations

Quantum brain theory

Panpsychism and neutral monism

A quantum vitalism

Quantum cognition and rational choice

Agency and quantum will

Non-local experience in time

Quantum semantics and meaning holism

Direct perception and other minds

An emergent, holistic, but flat ontology

Toward a quantum vitalist sociology.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107082540

1107082544

9781107442924

1107442923

OCLC:

905486969