Concerning the Problem of the Observer: Learning the Lessons of Physics

Arthur Zajonc

Professor of Physics
Amherst College
Amherst, MA 01002

Abstract:

The problem of the observer, or the "first-person" perspective, is central to the study of consciousness. Physics has wrestled with this issue in both its classical and modern phases.  I will argue that developments in 20th century physics convincingly demonstrate that the "objects" of science always arise in relationship to a real or hypothetical subject.  Observer dependence appears in both Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, and the observer's role is distinctly different from that in classical physics. In modern physics the observer is built into the very structure of physical inquiry and ways that affect our conception of reality. These considerations point to the futility of eliminating the subject, and of establishing an autonomous material universe with fixed pre-existing attributes. The justifiable longing for an objective science is fulfilled instead by an unbiased method of investigation and a coherent account of phenomena that includes the observer. 

Using examples drawn from quantum physics and relativity theory, I explore the border region between classical and quantum physics, and the positive potential of a phenomenological approach for the scientific study of consciousness.  In closing I will draw on contributions from cognitive psychology and contemplative traditions in order to suggest an adequate epistemology and methodology for the study of consciousness without reduction to mechanism.

Keywords:
quantum mechanics, phenomenology, observer

References:
Arthur Zajonc, Catching the Light (NY: Oxford University Press, 1993)
George Greenstein and Arthur Zajonc, The Quantum Challenge (Sudbury, MA Jones and Bartlett,1997) David Seamon and Arthur Zajonc, Goethe's Way of Science (Albany, NY: SUNY, 1998)