Russell (1961: 786-7):
Quantum theory reinforces this conclusion, but its chief philosophical importance is that it regards physical phenomena as possibly discontinuous. It suggests that, in an atom (interpreted as above), a certain state of affairs persists for a certain time, and then suddenly is replaced by a finitely different state of affairs. Continuity of motion, which had always been assumed, appears to have been a mere prejudice. The philosophy appropriate to quantum theory, however, has not yet been adequately developed. I suspect that it will demand even more radical departures from the traditional doctrine of space and time than those demanded by the theory of relativity.
Blogger Comment:
From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the discontinuities of physical phenomena at the quantum scale are discontinuities in the construal of experience as meaning. Such spatiotemporal discontinuities arise because, as Bohr says, it is meaningless to ask what a particle is doing when it is not being observed. In the intervals when no observation is being made, no construal of experience as a particle locomoting through space-time takes place.
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