La filosofía frente al objeto cuántico

Abstract

Often, the quantum physics and the story of its development are presented as one of the greatest scientific and intellectual achievements of XX Century. However, and this is not completely new, it is well known that identifying physics as ``revolutionary'' has depended largely on its scientific, theoretical and experimental consequences, but also on the level of the philosophical problems it has vented since its inception. However, from the point of view of philosophy, we consider that, although the current knowledge of the philosophically fertile horizons of quantum physics is not completely limited, it is necessary, in favor of further deepening, to turn our attention to the ontological problem of the quantum object. In this sense this work represents the effort to elaborate a philosophical reflection on the question about the nature of the quantum object. Starting from a general supposition according to which reality is made up of objects, things or entities and that these ``objects'' are found in any physical or philosophical theory, the duty of defining and limiting the ontological status of the entities it postulate is under discussion. However, quantum physics entails a extraordinary difficulty facing this requirement since the behavior and properties of the subatomic entities implies the cancelation of the fundamental ontological principle of identity-causality; its description introduces in the physical world elements such as uncertainty, absence of identity and the lack of punctual locality and, which, in general terms, imply, on one hand the emergency of a new kind of science and on the other hand an ontological reformulation. Given than the objects of quantum theory are far from the ones exhibited by the classic physics, the need to answer the following questions arises: How are, ontologically speaking, the objects postulated by a theory with the peculiarity of quantum physics?, what are they?, how are they and what ontological determinations do those posses?, what ontology is behind these entities? What kind of ontology implies the quantum theory? With all of this under consideration, it is discussed that the ontological focus of quantum physics in terms of potentiality-actuality it is reminiscent to the concepts of ``act'' and ``power'', used in Aristotle Metaphysics in order to explain the transformation of the Being. Finally it is pointed out that the ontology behind quantum mechanics openly shows that reality is far from being even, simple and concrete; it implies a great and growing complexity that appertain to the very self development of the science in general. This philosophical and ontological exam of the quantum entities lead to assert that contemporary science has acquired a multi-paradigmatic character, revealing that reality is not univocal and has different manifestations and ways to be.