1.b. Buddhist Epistemology & Quantum physics

Learning Outcomes

During the course of this lesson, you will:

  • Discover how the concepts of appearance and reality are understood in science and Buddhist thought;
  • Explore the connections between Buddhist thought and different interpretations of quantum mechanics.

1. Introduction

This lesson focuses on the important role played by the concepts of appearance and reality in both Buddhism and modern science, although these are to be understood in complementary ways by two different schools of thought. Science describes fundamental reality as a series of patterns that are hidden beyond appearances and that can often be described by mathematical laws. By contrast, Buddhist philosophy suggests that our perception of reality is distorted by the superimposition of artificial structures and labels onto experience. In this module and throughout the course, you will learn how the latter view is in alignment with contemporary interpretations of quantum mechanics, such as Christopher Fuchs’ QBism and Carlo Rovelli’s relational interpretation of reality – both discussed below.

2. Watch

3. Read

2a. Buddhist Epistemology: Mind-only and Middle Way Schools

In this lesson, Dr. Michel Bitbol discusses the concepts of appearance and reality through the lenses of Buddhist epistemology and quantum physics, which are very different from the earlier discussed Western philosophical ideas of reality. Buddhist epistemology states that singular moments of appearance (svalaksana) are the only realities, in opposition to fabricated generalities and conceptual superimpositions (samânŷlaksana). According to a Buddhist school known as Cittamătra/Yogacăra, which is similar to Western idealism, external things do not exist independently from our mind; they are not made of a different “substance” than that of our conscious experience. What is real is the mind, the “light” through which things come into existence. Notably, the Buddha has said ‘The three realms of existence are merely mind’. (The three domains of existence, were, according to the Buddha: the desire realm, which is the sensible world, where one’s mind is involved with the objects of sensual desire; the form realm, where one is absorbed in meditative bliss; and the formless realm, where one transcends even meditative bliss, to abide in a state of equanimity and non-conceptuality.) Finally, the Mādhyamika tradition takes these ideas even further, suggesting that there is no ‘substantial’ mind and that nothing exists inherently, as an independent entity.

2b. The Paradox of Quantum Reality

We now turn to the view of appearance and reality in modern science – more specifically, as explained by Quantum Physics. As will be discussed in greater depth in Module 4 and 5, quantum physics uses mathematical language to describe the behaviour of matter and energy on a microscopic scale. The equations of quantum mechanics are extremely accurate and have strong experimental support; however, the entities described by those equations are not unequivocally defined, and multiple interpretations of quantum mechanics have been proposed during the years to explain various “quantum paradoxes”.

A famous example is the paradox of Schrodinger’s cat: a mental experiment formulated by Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) in 1935 where the logical consequences of quantum mechanics are brought to their extreme. This results in the paradoxical statement that an (imaginary) cat can be both alive and dead at the same time. However, the paradox only arises if we believe that quantum states describe reality as it actually is, rather than just the appearance of reality. The same goes for non-locality or entanglement: the idea that there is a non-local influence between two objects (at an arbitrary distance), or, in other words, that something can influence something else instantaneously at any distance. Again, this only becomes a paradox if it is applied to reality instead of the appearance of reality. In Schrodinger’s own words, this should prevent us from naively accepting “a blur model as a representation of reality”. Or in the words of Carlo Rovelli: “Quantum Mechanics does not violate locality.” All of this well summarised by the conclusion of theoretical physicist Asher Peres (1934-2005), who stated that paradoxical interpretations of quantum mechanics are the result of “the misuse of quantum concepts, guided by pseudo-realistic philosophy, that leads to paradoxical results”. 

2c. Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

Therefore, caution is needed to interpret reality through the lens of quantum mechanics, and we should correct the wrong view that mathematics describes a reality that is beyond appearances or is more real than the appearances – which is often called the ‘absolutist view of physics’. In his relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, Prof. Carlo Rovelli (1956-) proposed a new interpretation on the reality of events, dismantling this ‘absolutist’ view of physics. Relational quantum mechanics, thus, interprets quantum mechanics as a theory about physical facts (not about states), where there are no absolute facts, only relative facts: “Events (or physical facts) are realized in interactions between any two physical systems and are relative to these systems” [Rovelli, 2021].

Hence, there are no ‘absolute’ properties of reality: only relationships between different phenomena, through which those properties arise, resulting in something that is always a relative state. As Rovelli very importantly emphasises: “Reality is relation. It is not the things that can enter into a mutual relation, but it is the relations that give rise to the notion of ‘thing’.” (Rovelli, 2014). This new concept has been a seed of fruitful discussions, leading to more questions about the nature of reality, for example around the question if such a description would be observer-independent (i.e. not relative to any observer) – which is a question asked by philosopher Bas Van Fraassen (1966-) in relation to Carlo Rovelli’s ideas.

2d. Quantum Mechanics & Buddhism

Relational quantum mechanics seems to be in alignment with the two stages of Mādhaymaka, a tradition influenced by the Buddhist philosopher Năgărjuna. In Mādhyamaka philosophy, dependent arising (pratītyasamutpăda) occurs with paratantra (literally, woven-of-the-other) and parapasiddha (established by one another). In the words of Carlo Rovelli, it is a striking feature of Năgărjuna’s theory that “relations are also relative, that emptiness (of own-being) is empty (of own-being). This echoes Năgărjuna’s own statement that: ‘For whomever emptiness is a view, that one has accomplished nothing. In other words: do not make the negation of absolutes into an absolute view, nor the idea that the world is a network of relation into an absolute view.

Another interpretation of quantum mechanics known as QBism (developed by Christopher Fuchs and others),presents striking parallelisms with the Buddhist view of reality. In QBism, quantum mechanics is considered to be a tool that conscious observers can use to evaluate, based on their past experience, the probabilistic expectations for subsequent experiences. Jacques Pienaar, another theoretical physicist who contributed to the development of QBism, states that, in this particular interpretation, an element of reality is an experience. Experience is thus taken to be the fundamental “building block” of reality, and the pairing of an experiencing subject with an experienced object is called an event.

Dr. Michel Bitbol concludes his presentation by stating that contemporary science no longer makes a strong distinction between appearance and reality, as during the time of Plato; instead we tend to adhere exclusively with the lived experience, without trying to go beyond it. This strategy, Dr. Bitbol states, links in to the transition from classical to quantum physics, which led to a new scientific understanding of reality that is more in line with the view of ancient Buddhist philosophy.

Lecture Notes

We recommend reading the lecture notes before you start watching the content. This will help you to start contemplating some of the topics before you begin to watch the lecture. Download Module 2 Lecture Notes