The Inconsistency Between Galilean Epistemology And Quantum Physics Though Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 9-10):

Even today after the Einsteinian revolution and the emergence of quantum mechanics, the Galilean procedure has not been swept aside. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity showed how the position and the velocity of the observer altered the measurement of space and time, and by taking acceleration into account it altered the very meaning of the word matter. Quantum mechanics showed that the operation of measurement in the domain of the very small ineluctably involves the actions of the observer who has to choose, within the uncertainty dictated by Planck's constant, the level of precision with which he or she wishes to know either the position or the momentum of a subatomic particle. This reflects what physicists call the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Blogger Comments:

While it is true that 'the Galilean procedure has not been swept aside' after the emergence of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, these theories differ significantly from 'the Galilean procedure' in as much as both involve the observer in the theory.

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, by including the observer, the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics construe experience as meanings that are the cognitive projections of conscious processing — senser and mental process — whereas the original Galilean procedure construes experience as meanings in the absence of the conscious processing that projects them.

As shown in previous posts on Quantum theory, it is this (unrecognised) inconsistency between the two epistemologies that confuses physicists with regard to the "intrusion" of consciousness into the Galilean domain of primary qualities: the position and motion of bodies.