I love when “philosophers” speak about arguments they don’t understand.
I will reply with Ethan Siegel article
Quantum Physics Is Fine, Human Bias About Reality Is The Real Problem
You write:
Open questions are if scientific theories are at least approximating a true description of reality and whether it is rational to believe in unobservable entities — like our friend, the electron.
What is this “reality” you speak about? Why is an electron unobservable? Is a bottle observable? What do you mean by observable (hopefully not that we can see it)?
Let’s keep it simple, a scientific theory:
- is described using mathematics models (and not just words)
- is falsifiable: there must be physical experiment to test the proposed models
- must predict or explain some phenomena
Electrons are as “real” as a bottle: we have a description of both, we can explain some of their properties, we can predict what will happen when they interact with other things. We don’t know everything there is to know about them.
Besides I am using a computer to write this response. The computer exists because some minds decided that it was more interesting on focusing on what we can know rather than on what we cannot know. And electrons are an important part in how a computer works…
Do I believe in electrons? Do you believe in the milk you may be drinking in the morning? I say it is not an interesting question.
