Quantum Mind and Social Science: Unifying Physical and Social Ontology - Hardcover

Wendt, Alexander

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107082544 ISBN 13: 9781107082540

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

There is an underlying assumption in the social sciences that consciousness and social life are ultimately classical physical/material phenomena. In this ground-breaking book, Alexander Wendt challenges this assumption by proposing that consciousness is, in fact, a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon. In the first half of the book, Wendt justifies the insertion of quantum theory into social scientific debates, introduces social scientists to quantum theory and the philosophical controversy about its interpretation, and then defends the quantum consciousness hypothesis against the orthodox, classical approach to the mind-body problem. In the second half, he develops the implications of this metaphysical perspective for the nature of language and the agent-structure problem in social ontology. Wendt's argument is a revolutionary development which raises fundamental questions about the nature of social life and the work of those who study it.

About this title

Book Description

This book proposes a quantum physical basis for consciousness and its place in the natural world, and explores the implications of this perspective for the social sciences. Wendt's argument provides a philosophical basis for human agency through free will, and for a holistic or 'non-local' vision of social life.

About the Author

Alexander Wendt is Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security and Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University. He is the author of Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge, 1999) which won the International Studies Association's Best Book of the Decade Award in 2006.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1107082544
• ISBN 13: 9781107082540
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368