The strange fate of the morphed ‘rump materialism’: a comment on the vagaries of social science as seen through Alexander Wendt's Quantum Mind and Social Science

This philosophical commentary critically examines Alexander Wendt's book Quantum Mind, placing it in the context of disciplinary engagement and larger philosophical issues. The author avoids both hasty dismissal and uncritical acceptance, noting that Wendt offers what appears to be a 'theory of everything' but provides little justification for his particular, controversial interpretation of quantum theory. The author questions why Wendt has abandoned conventional professional puzzles, claiming quantum consciousness theory provides an 'ace up the sleeve'. While acknowledging that wave collapse disrupts traditional notions of cause, location, and mass, the author argues this does not automatically entitle us to claim that quantum mechanics has solved most problems of validity and meaning in social science.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract In putting Wendt's recent Quantum Mind in a larger context both of his own disciplinary engagement and some larger philosophical issues, I try to avoid a hasty dismissal, since the book seems at first blush to offer a ‘theory of everything’, or an uncritical acceptance, since the desire to know what makes the world hand together has always been part of the knowledge game. As to the first problem, I find it rather odd that Wendt spends little time in justifying his particular take on quantum theory, which is far from uncontroversial. Second, I attempt to understand why he has given up on the profession trying now to solve puzzles in the field by claiming that ‘quantum consciousness theory’ provides us with an ‘ace up the sleeve’. But the fact that wave collapse plays havoc with our traditional notions of cause, location, and mass, does not without further ado entitle us to claim that all or most problems in social science dealing with issues of validity and meaning of our concepts (rather than ‘truth/falsity’, as decided by making existential assertions) have been solved by quantum mechanics.