Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 325 64 Causality is superstition

Chen Muwu's misfortune sold out the results, and he successfully suppressed the situation at the Apostolic Society's gathering.

Some of these people knew Boltzmann, some did not.

But regardless of whether they knew it or not, after listening to the conversation between Chen Muwu and Wittgenstein, they all felt deeply sorry for this physicist who was attacked for insisting on scientific truth and fought alone until his death.

However, now Chen Muwu suddenly said that he, like Boltzmann, had been attacked by others because of different academic opinions. What did he mean?
Boltzmann was influenced by Mach, Ostwald, and Zermelo. Zermelo was the mathematician Z who came up with the Z-F axiom system in order to solve the paradox proposed by Russell. In addition to studying mathematics, he was also a student of Planck. Like other scientists at the end of the [-]th century and the beginning of the [-]th century, he was attacked by cross-border experts. Who was Chen Muwu attacked by?
Moreover, when Chen Muwu compared himself to Boltzmann, could there be other implications?

Did he mean to say that he was receiving more and more attacks, and in the end he planned to commit suicide like Boltzmann?
There are many outstanding people in various disciplines at Cambridge University, but those who study psychology are slightly worse.

Ramsey was very worried after hearing what he said. He thought that he should find an opportunity to take Chen Muwu out to relax. He was confined to the one-third-acre plot of Cambridge University all day long. He was busy with academics every day. There is no time to rest at all, and Dr. Chen's physical and mental health is also a big problem.

How about finding an opportunity to invite him to the beach for a vacation?

——Ramsey, who was concerned and confused, completely forgot that Chen Muwu had just returned from a trip to Italy.

However, Wittgenstein, who had made a new acquaintance with Dr. Chen today, did not care much about his physical and mental health, because Chen Muwu tied him with a new question at the end of his words.

Causality.

Ever since Hume, the great British philosopher in the eighteenth century, he has had a skeptical and negative attitude towards the issue of causality.

When a pot of delicious soup is cooked in the kitchen, guests sitting in the living room can also smell the delicious smell of the pot of soup.

But why can guests smell this smell?Is this inevitable?

The explanation given by physicists is that the heating of the soup pot by the fire accelerates the thermal motion of the molecules, causing more and more aroma molecules to overflow from the pot and float into the living room, so guests can smell this. kind of smell.

But why does heating the soup pot accelerate the thermal motion of molecules instead of reducing it?
Physicists can only say that this is the result of thousands of observations, and a large number of experimental phenomena show that heating does accelerate the thermal motion of molecules. After all, physics is an experiment-based discipline.

However, in Hume's view, conclusions drawn from observations, which is called "induction", are not very reliable.

For example, an English farmer raised many sheep in pens. They fed the sheep in these pens at eight o'clock every morning.

Over time, a sheep scientist was born among the sheep. After a long period of observation and induction, he announced that he had come to the most correct scientific conclusion in the universe, that is, "Every morning at eight o'clock, food appears on time at the eclipse." "in the trough".

However, the day after the sheep scientist announced this scientific conclusion, he did not see food in the trough at eight o'clock in the morning.

Because in the early morning of that day, the farmer captured the sheep scientist and killed it.

There is another thing that also shows that observation may not necessarily lead to correct conclusions.

Before humans discovered black swans in Australia, everyone in the world except Australia thought that all swans were white, because the only swans humans could observe at that time were white.

Moreover, there is one of the most fatal questions in the theory of cause and effect, that is, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Some people would say that because of the theory of evolution, the first chicken in the world evolved from other animals, so the chicken came first.

But we can also use the theory of evolution to push this theory forward. For the animal that finally evolved into a chicken, did this animal come first, or did the egg of this animal come first?
The same goes for plants. Which plant comes first, or the seeds of the plant?
Even when it comes to the origin of life, single-celled organisms, skeptics of causality can ask similar questions, which came first, single-celled organisms, or the division of single-celled organisms?

Using causal theory, this seemingly paradoxical problem can never be explained.

Influenced by Hume, the founder of British philosophy, his disciples and grandchildren have been developing Hume's theory on the issue of causality.

Wittgenstein himself is one of them. In the philosophical pamphlet he wrote during World War I, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, there is this sentence: "We cannot infer future events from present events. Belief in cause and effect is superstitious.”

Because he studied under Russell, a macho man who spent more than 360 pages defining what "1" is, Wittgenstein also used logic to deny causality.

Wittgenstein believed that the world has no essence, only phenomena.

As for things like phenomena, you can only know their existence by experiencing them.

In other words, only through experience can we recognize phenomena. Research phenomena that do not involve the essence can only be regarded as summary and statistics. The statement that phenomena that have not been experienced are logical can only mean that they have not been experienced, not does not exist.

The core of causality is that if there is a "cause", there will "inevitably" be an "effect". Causes and effects are interrelated. If there is a causal relationship in the real world, then the causal relationship must exist in the real world.

People understand reality through experience.

But this "inevitability" of statistical results based on experience is just a statistical result in Wittgenstein's philosophical theory.

It is impossible to use this kind of statistical results and logical thinking to deduce that there is no phenomenon that does not conform to the causal relationship.

Since we cannot use logical relations to deduce that the cause of existence "necessarily" exists the effect, it means that the causal relationship does not exist.

Wittgenstein never thought that Chen Muwu actually knew something about the ideas in his Tractatus Logic and Philosophy, and therefore forgot that he had raised several questions to challenge Chen Muwu when they first met.

Wittgenstein then remembered that Chen Muwu was also a person who had researched and made contributions in philosophy and mathematics. An incompleteness theorem caused Hilbert, the "King of Mathematics," to lose his armor.

So he began to excitedly tell Chen Muwu about his views on causality:

"Dr. Chen, I personally do not reject the phenomenon of causality based on human experience in the real world. I just reject the idea that because of this phenomenon, I can use logic to deduce that there must be causality in the real world. .

"Things that cannot be expressed clearly with logic, I call them 'things that cannot be talked about', and things that can be expressed clearly with logic, I call them 'things that can be talked about'. "'Things that can be talked about' ' This part can be left to scientists like you to study, while the 'cannot talk about' part cannot be expressed logically. On this part, scientists should remain silent about it.

"Obviously, the matter of 'whether there is a causal relationship' is something that cannot be discussed, and naturally one should remain silent.

"People talk about cause and effect, but in my opinion, that is completely superstitious."

The question about causality that Chen Muwu just raised was like lighting a match in a fuel tank full of gunpowder, completely igniting Wittgenstein's passion for philosophical issues.

In this corner of the Apostolic Society meeting, he spoke endlessly on the issue of cause and effect.

At first, everyone in the Apostolic Society was slightly interested, because Wittgenstein was also a guest who came to the party for the first time today.

However, his words became more profound, difficult to understand, and selfless. The number of people gathered here to listen to Wittgenstein and Chen Muwu's chat became fewer and fewer, and they left in twos and threes to continue talking about the topic they had just talked about.

In the end, only Ramsey, who introduced Wittgenstein to Chen Muwu today, was still with the two of them. His thinking speed could barely keep up with the thinking speed of these two big guys. .

"Dr. Chen, we have been talking about the theory of cause and effect for a few ten minutes here, but what does this have to do with the topic just now?"

Seeing that Wittgenstein's explanation came to an end, Ramsey raised his own questions at every opportunity.

It seems that the initial question can never be bypassed.

Fortunately, Wittgenstein's long speech just now cleared many obstacles for Chen Muwu to answer this question, and he continued directly following the answer.

"I have emphasized many times before that whether it is a cat in a black box or that the universe will be split into two during observation, these are just a way to solve the phenomena we encounter in real society. That’s all.

"This does not mean that the operating rules of our real world must be like this, but it is just a possibility.

"As Mr. Wittgenstein said just now, these two views are just a summary of real experience and cannot be regarded as irrefutable truth.

"It's just that among physicists, many people are loyal believers in the theory of causation. They have always felt that I and the quantum mechanics I proposed are not in line with the theory of causation. Therefore, although quantum mechanics can perfectly explain many physics Phenomenon, but cannot be recognized by people like them. They believe that quantum mechanics is incomplete."

Chen Mu looked aggrieved when he came out armed, as if he had been bullied by those physicists who talked about "causality" every day.

However, he deliberately did not name these physicists, let alone the one who took the lead, named Albert Einstein.

After hearing what Chen Muwu said, Wittgenstein, as a strong resister of the "causality theory", suddenly became interested.

"Dr. Chen, it is a pity that Professor Boltzmann passed away many years ago, which prevented me from embarking on the path of physics research.

“To this day, meeting you at Cambridge University, I became interested in physics again.

"Can you recommend some books or papers about quantum mechanics? If I have time recently, I plan to learn more about it and see if I can help you defeat those elders who insist on the theory of causality."

Chen Muwu thought Wittgenstein's words were very good, but don't say them next time.

Why should we compare ourselves with Boltzmann?

In terms of greatness, Chen Muwu felt that he was not as good as Boltzmann, and there was no way the two of them could be placed side by side.

Regarding other aspects, Chen Muwu always felt that Wittgenstein seemed to have cursed himself inadvertently, as if he also wanted him to commit suicide.

Chen Muwu had no objection to Wittgenstein's statement that he wanted to read books on quantum mechanics.

Wittgenstein first wanted to study physics, and then studied aeronautical engineering in Germany and Manchester. In order to understand the shape of the propeller and study the most suitable propeller blade curve, he became interested in mathematics.

To this end, he found a newly released mathematics book on the British market, "Principles of Mathematics", and got to know Russell through this book, and came to Cambridge University to study under Russell.

Wittgenstein could understand a masterpiece like "Principles of Mathematics", which is just quantum mechanics. Chen Muwu felt that it was no problem for him.

"Easy to say, easy to say, Mr. Wittgenstein, how long will you stay at Cambridge University? I will send the book over tomorrow, it should be in time, right?"

"No problem, but then I will change my plan and hide in Cambridge for a few days. If I see anything in the book that I don't understand, I will ask Dr. Chen for advice."

Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge not in 1927 but two years later in 1929. Now he should be building a house in Vienna - one of his sisters was afraid that she had become mentally ill after teaching in the Austrian mountains for several years. That's why I paid for this guy to design and supervise the construction of the house.

He was able to appear in the Apostolic Society this time, probably just by chance.

"It's not up to you to ask for advice, but as long as there are questions, I will do my best. But can you give me an answer?"

"Dr. Chen, you are being humble. Quantum mechanics is a discipline founded by you. How can there be problems that you don't understand?"

"Then I have to say something ugly first. The issues we are discussing are limited to the physical level. No matter how deep the philosophical issues are, I can't accompany you."

Chen Muwu just said a few words about the theory of cause and effect, and he was already dizzy.

If he hadn't had to stay with Wittgenstein, he would have wanted to hide as far away as the rest of the Apostolic Society.

(End of this chapter)