Wolfgang Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1930-02-18)18 February 1930 |
| Died | 19 July 2024(2024-07-19) (aged 94) Ventura, California, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Education | Cornell University (BS) Purdue University (MS) Columbia University (PhD) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Realism,Platonism,Neoplatonism,Aristotelianism,Traditionalism |
| Main interests | Metaphysics,Physics,Mathematics,Philosophy of science |
| Notable ideas | Splitting thescientific method from thescientistic philosophy, showing how the former can be joined to aThomistic-basedontologicalrealism, assigning to manyhard sciences a place in such an ontologicalhierarchy; distinction between the "corporeal world" and the "physical universe"; vertical causation; irreducible wholeness |
Wolfgang Smith (February 18, 1930 – July 19, 2024) was an Austrian mathematician, physicist,philosopher of science,metaphysician, and member of theTraditionalist School. He wrote extensively in the field ofdifferential geometry, as a critic ofscientism and as a proponent of a newinterpretation of quantum mechanics that draws heavily from premodernontology andrealism.
Smith was born February 18, 1930, inVienna. He graduated in 1948 fromCornell University with majors in philosophy, physics, and mathematics. Two years later he took hisM.S. in physics atPurdue University and ultimately hisPh.D. in mathematics atColumbia University.
He worked as an aerodynamicist atBell Aircraft Corporation in the early 1950s, and during this time researched and published on the problem ofatmospheric reentry.[1] He was a mathematics professor atMIT,UCLA andOregon State University, doing research in the field ofdifferential geometry and publishing inacademic journals such as theTransactions of the American Mathematical Society, theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, theAmerican Journal of Mathematics, and others. He retired from academic life in 1992.
In parallel with his academic duties, he developed philosophical inquiries in the fields ofmetaphysics and thephilosophy of science, publishing in specialized journals such asThe Thomist,Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, andSophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies.[1]
Smith died inVentura, California at the age of 94.[2]
Smith was a member of theTraditionalist School ofmetaphysics, having contributed extensively to its criticism of modernity while exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the scientific method and emphasizing the idea of bringing science back into aPlatonist andAristotelian framework of traditional ontologicalrealism.
Identifying withAlfred North Whitehead's critique of the "bifurcationism" and "physical reductionism" ofscientism – i.e., the belief that, first, the qualitative properties of the objects of perception ("corporeal" objects) are ultimately distinct from their respective quantitative properties (the "physical" objects studied by the various sciences); and second, that physical objects are in fact all there is, meaning corporeal objects are reduced to their physical counterparts – Smith examines critically in his workCosmos and Transcendence (1984) theCartesian roots of modern science.
Proceeding with his critique of scientism in his monograph,The Quantum Enigma (1995), Smith raised the questions of whether thescientific method is in fact dependent on the scientistic philosophy and, if it is not, whether linking it to other philosophical frameworks would provide better solutions to the way physical phenomena are interpreted. Demonstrating that neither the scientific method nor its results require adhering to a scientistic metaphysics, he answered in the negative to the first question, resulting in the conclusion that it is possible to link the scientific method to any underlying ontology, or to none at all. Working then into the second question, he proposed linking the scientific method – and thus the modern sciences – to a non-bifurcationist, non-reductionist metaphysics in the form of a modifiedThomistic ontology, showing how such a move resolves the apparent incoherences ofquantum mechanics.[3]
According to Smith, thisinterpretation of quantum mechanics allows for the usage of thehylomorphic concepts ofpotency and act to properly understandquantum superposition. For example, instead of considering that a photon is "simultaneously a wave and a particle" or "a particle in two distinct positions," one may consider that the photon (or any other physical object) at first does not existin act, but onlyin potency; i.e., as "matter" in the hylomorphic meaning of the term, having thepotential of becoming "a wave or a particle," or "of being here or there." Whether one of these outcomes will happen to this undifferentiated matter is dependent on the determination imposed upon it by themacroscopic corporeal object that provides itsactualization. A photon, thus, would be no more strange for having many potentials than, say, an individual who has the "superposed" potentials of learning French and/or Spanish and/or Greek, all the while reading and/or walking and/or stretching his arms. A further consequence of this interpretation is that a corporeal object and its "associated physical object" are not dichotomized or reduced one to the other anymore but, on the contrary, altogether constitute a whole of which different aspects are dealt with depending upon perspective.[4]
Smith's understanding of the relationship between corporeal and physical objects extends to his interpretation ofbiology, where he became an opponent ofDarwinian evolution, as the fundamental element in a species would be its form, not its causal history, which evolutionists favor. This led him to be a supporter of theintelligent design movement, though his own hylomorphic approach is not widely adopted by mainstream intelligent design theorists (who, like evolutionists, also favor causal history, albeit differently).[citation needed]
Smith also took a stance towards arelativistic rehabilitation ofgeocentrism. He did not support a Ptolemaic or medieval geocentrism unequivocally, nor assert that heliocentrism is absolutely false. Rather, he argued that, according to the theory ofrelativity, both heliocentrism and geocentrism have scientific merit, insofar as scientific observation depends upon thereference frame of the observer. Consequently, any observations made from Earth (or any near-Earth satellites) are in effect geocentric.[5][6]
Smith participated inMiracle (2019), a documentary byMauro Ventura, with the participation of Raphael De Paola andOlavo de Carvalho.[7][8]
The End of Quantum Reality (2020), a documentary film about Smith's life and thought, ran in a limited national theatrical release in the U.S.[9][10][11]
Cosmos and Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy (1988; originally published asTeilhardism and the New Religion)
The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key (1995)
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions: A Critique of Contemporary Scientism (2004; originally published asThe Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology)
Christian Gnosis: From Saint Paul to Meister Eckhart (2008)
Science & Myth: With a Response to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design (2012)
In Quest of Catholicity: Malachi Martin Responds to Wolfgang Smith (2016)
Physics and Vertical Causation: The End of Quantum Reality (2019)
The Vertical Ascent: From Particles to the Tripartite Cosmos and Beyond (2021)
Vedanta in Light of Christian Wisdom (2022)
Physics: A Science in Quest of an Ontology (2023)
Articles onphilosophy,religion,physics and non-mathematical subjects in general:
Academic articles on mathematics signed as "J. Wolfgang Smith":
Arguing that Tychonian geocentrism and Einsteinian acentrism are reconciled based on their different darshanas, Dr. Smith surveys the empirical evidence in favor of geocentrism and of heliocentrism, and makes out the case for geocentrism based on a science of relativistic physics that accords with traditional doctrine.
