Quantum Physics, Brain Function in Modern Science and Buddhist Philosophy

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The tremendous developments of science and technology in the twentieth century raise the very important question, whether philosophy is relevant to science, so as to understand the behaviour of the objects of the material world in a more comprehensive manner. Many great physicists, like Eddington, Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg et al, emphasized the role of philosophy in physics. It is to be mentioned that the birth of quantum theory in the twentieth century raised many epistemological and conceptual issues regarding various concepts prevalent during the Newtonian era. Concepts like non-locality, entanglement and collapse of wave function during measurement are still under intense debate among the physicists and philosophers. Here, the issue is whether the physicists may get some insights from philosophy so as to understand these issues in a more comprehensive manner.

Some attempts have been made in this direction within the purview of Western philosophy and Indian philosophy, especially Buddhist philosophy. Almost two thousand years ago a great Buddhist philosopher Arya Nagarujna from India discussed the concept of Pratityasamutapada or dependent origination which may be much relevant to the context of non-locality and entanglement in quantum theory. Nagarjuna discussed the issue of dependent origination in understanding sunyata or emptiness. He meant emptiness as the entity or object in this world is devoid of svabhava or intrinsic property in the ultimate level of reality. In quantum theory the elementary objects in the microscopic domain like electron, photon etc; are supposed to have intrinsic properties like charge, mass and spin etc. It needs careful analysis to understand the concept of intrinsic property of the elementary object in quantum theory in the light of Arya Nagarjuna's analysis.

The concept of quantum vacuum is introduced to understand the creation of the universe. Here, quantum vacuum is considered ass substratum of everything in this universe. The role of quantum vacuum in modern cosmology and the emptiness in Buddhist philosophy raise lot of debates among the scientists and philosophers.

I sincerely hope that the papers presented in this conference shed new light on the relevance of philosophy, especially Buddhist philosophy, to quantum theory.

The birth of quantum theory in the early twentieth century raised a lot of epistemological issues which attracted many scientists and philosophers around the world. Many concepts in quantum theory like non-locality, decoherence, quantum entanglement, identity and individuality, etc; drew attention to Buddhist philosophers for the last few decades, especially through the encouragement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mind and Life Institute. In the course of the development of quantum theory, the ontological issues are becoming important not only in modern physics but also in Buddhist doctrine propounded by Arya Nagarjuna. The issue of the observer and the object and measurement problem in quantum theory gives rise to new debate regarding the role of the psyche and fee will in formulating a physical theory. So understanding the functioning of the brain becomes an important investigation in relation to principles of superposition, decoherence, and cognition. In the twentieth century more and more elementary entities are discovered in the laboratory. So the concept of the fundamental entity in the physical work becomes debatable. The discovery of more and more elementary entities at the microscopic level raises the issue of subtle and gross matter.

The concept of subtle and gross matter has been discussed in Indian philosophy in general and especially in the Buddhist framework for many centuries. It is related to the perception and role of sensory organs in human cognition. The developments of neuroscience may shed new light in this direction. Here we have identified some of the important issues from quantum theory that can be discussed by quantum physicists, neuroscientists, and Buddhist philosophers.

1 Decoherence in quantum physics

Quantum decoherence (hereafter decoherence) is a physical phenomenon brought about by a system's entanglement with its environment. It is just the consequence of the fact that no physical system is truly isolated (or isolateable) from quantum mechanical interactions. In the intuitive framework of the layman, the objects we see around us are considered to exist by themselves and independently of any observer. So, the world (including objects and strengths) is considered as exist as such. This is what is called reality. It is usual to consider classical physics as a good description of this reality.

Realists think that it is quantum decoherence by which one arrives at the appearance of a world that is classical in nature. However, the world is quantum and the realist interpretation is not a valid description of the world. If the world is quantum, then in the case of human cognition, how does a distinct state arise out of the superposition of various possibilities?

The same world is seen by people of different faculties of intelligence commoners and thinkers. Commoners see the world and what constitutes the world as discreet and independent. While this perception is rejected by the thinkers who see things as more causally dependent and with two truths, the views accepted by the less intelligible thinkers are rejected by the more sophisticated thinkers who see that things in the nature of two truths in their most nuanced understanding where the mutuality of dependence is asserted between object and subject, the world and the perceiver of the world, and so forth. Its total decoherence constitutes the conventional truth and the absence of coherence is the ultimate truth.

2 Causation, free will, and indeterminism in quantum physics as well as in Buddhist thought

The cause-and-effect relationship is closely connected to determinism. However, determinism is not always related to cause and effect relationship. For example, in chaos theory, the future behavior of the object is very much sensitive to its initial conditions and chaotic behavior may arise depending on the initial condition. This happens even when the object obeys deterministic law. On the other hand, in quantum theory, indeterminism is ontic in nature and causality can be defined in a probabilistic manner. In quantum physics, the concept of non-locality and teleportation raises new debates about the existence of free will.

Neuroscientists have been debating over the issue of free will for centuries and it seems free will is an illusion. For them, indeterminism is not sufficient to guarantee the existence of free will. Buddhist philosophers have been debating on the issue of causality and the existence of free will for many centuries.

In the world of the concept of dependent origination presented by Buddhism, the first level - causal dependent origination of the three levels, is the building block of philosophy and the framework of Buddhism.

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