A Rational Cosmology: The Dangers of the Particle-Wave View of Light

Essay XLII

This is Essay XLII of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

Almost no other concept has been either more elusive, nor its misinterpretations more damaging, than light. Twentieth-century theoretical physics has built its most egregious fallacies on a series of errors with regard to this term.

Understanding the truth about light is nonetheless indispensable to one's ordinary existence, given that light is required to fathom anything visually. Furthermore, it is necessary for dispelling the ontological confusion that the "particle/wave duality" has brought about: a confusion that has led many to despair about living in an irrational, unfathomable and worthless universe!

Such despair is groundless, yet it has wreaked enormous havoc in intellectual and popular circles. But all existential despair is a function of an improper view of what the world is. Thus, we shall endeavor here to provide a proper view as a remedy. Our first task is to confine physics to its legitimate scope.

While the specific-observational sciences can legitimately study the particular properties of light and the regularities with which it behaves, the fundamental classification of light belongs to philosophy and cosmology, as light is not only a ubiquitous observation, but, moreover, required for visual observation of all entities, a prerequisite for their full understanding. Thus, light can be said to be a prerequisite to ubiquitous observation.