The elision of the subject and the manifestation of the world

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum mechanics challenges the separation of observer and observed, proposing that the distinction between the manifested world and its instrumental basis allows for re-eliding the subject and object.

Contribution

It offers a philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics that reconciles the role of the observer with the nature of quantum objects and measurement.

Findings

Quantum properties depend on experimental conditions.

Measuring instruments cannot be independent of conscious observers.

The difference between classical and quantum domains relates to manifestation and instrumentation.

Abstract

Owing to the contextuality of the properties of quantum objects, quantum mechanics does not appear to countenance the elision of the thinking and perceiving subject. If quantum objects owe their properties to the experimental conditions in which they are observed, the experimental apparatus cannot owe its properties to the quantum objects of which it is commonly said to be composed. It follows that neither quantum objects nor measuring instruments can be regarded as property-carriers existing independently of conscious subjects. However, if the difference between the classical domain and the quantum domain is understood as essentially the difference between the manifested world and what is instrumental in its manifestation, the elision of the subject can again be achieved.