Volume 1, Issue 1, pages 1-31
Antony Van der Mude [Show Biography]
We postulate that Measurement in Quantum Mechanics forms the basis of a Causally Active Metaphysical Realism. It is Quantum Measurements that give rise to the instantiation of Universals as Properties, processes we refer to as Hylomorphic Functions. The process of measurement is the creation of a quantum of information – a Fact. How this happens is explained differently in different interpretations of Quantum Mechanics, but the creation of a fact is the same in all of them. This combines substance metaphysics and process metaphysics by identifying the hylomorphic functions as causally active processes complementary to physical substances, forming a dualism of both substance and information which mutually interact. We look at this hypothesis in relation to various different interpretations of Quantum Mechanics starting with the Copenhagen Interpretation. Measurements of fundamental properties of matter are the Atomic Universals of metaphysics, which combine to form the whole taxonomy of Universals, including causally inactive Inferences made of separate Atomic Facts. Since the Hylomorphic Functions are causally active, it is possible to suggest experimental tests that can verify this viewpoint.