A Rational Cosmology: The Need to Explain Polarization of Light Without Presupposing the Wave Model

This is Essay CVIII 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.

In earlier essays of this series, I refuted the fashionable post-Classical view of light as a "particle/wave duality." Of course, it is unsatisfactory to simply prove a negative: to show that a given interpretation is false. Rather, one must replace the false understanding with a true one. I have done so in so far in A Rational Cosmology, classifying light as the direct relationship at a distance between a light source and its target.

This view of light as a relationship ought to be able to explain several particular phenomena which modern scientists invoke to justify the "particle/wave duality." The "particle/wave duality" accounts for these phenomena, they allege, so it must be true.

Yet it is quite possible for a false model to incorporate and "explain" facts. It is possible to "explain" gravitation, for example, as the pulling of invisible green demons (or invisible "gravitron" particles) on all objects. The mere ability to explain particulars does not automatically imply a theory's truth-especially if, like the "particle/wave duality" of light, the theory is riddled with contradictions. However, a true theory will be consistent with all the particulars of observation; reality brooks no contradictions.

In this series, I have already explained how rational cosmology's view of light is consistent with observations about radio signals and lasers. Now I shall examine its compatibility with another observation often invoked to justify the false duality.