Appearance and reality in physics and beyond

The project studies the philosophical topic of “appearance and reality” both in physics and in cognitive neuroscience.

Firstly, there is the question of whether quantum theory can be given an ontological interpretation (i.e., whether it is possible to have a notion of the nature of reality at the quantum level), or whether we must be satisfied with a more epistemic interpretation (where quantum theory is understood to refer to our statistical knowledge about the experimental phenomena (or “appearances”), as is often assumed.

Secondly, there is the question of whether relativistic phenomena (“appearances”) might be understood in a more coherent way with an alternative way of understanding some of the key notions about physical reality.

Thirdly, there is a question about whether causality (as it is observed both in every-day experience and in physics experiments) is a mere appearance as has been suggested in recent philosophical literature, or whether causality can be understood as a genuine feature of reality.

Finally, there is the question of whether the new ideas in physics and about causality explored in this project might help us to understand in a new way how the appearances that are given to us in our conscious experience are related to the physical reality in our brains, bodies and the environment.