Viktor Fersht
There is no absolute truth, there are multiple truths
How to put it into practice
The assertion that there can be no absolute truth in principle is proved by the following scientific disciplines and laws: quantum physics, general semantics, neurolinguistic programming, Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Niels Bohr's complementarity principle, as well as agnostics and relativism.
Quantum reality states that there can be multiple truths, not just one. This is confirmed by the “Experiment of a Friend” of the outstanding physicist Eugene Wigner. We are used to the fact that if some phenomenon occurs in the macrocosm, and several people can see it at once, then everyone will have almost the same impressions about it, if it comes to factual information, and not emotional.
But in the quantum world, everything is not so simple: for two different observers, one quantum process can have a completely different result. And, as it turns out, the factual information of each of them will be correct.
This paradox was first described by the physicist Eugene Wigner.
Physicists have performed this thought experiment in the real world for the first time. To do this, they used a quantum computer and three pairs of entangled photons. The first pair are coins, while the other two are used to "toss" them - measurements of polarization. Moreover, each "coin" is in its own closed vessel, where, in addition to it, there is a "throw" photon. Outside of these two boxes are two more photons, which act as "friend-observers".
Despite using state-of-the-art quantum technology, it took scientists weeks to collect enough data from six photons. In the end, they showed that Bell's inequality is violated, therefore, each of the observers of a quantum phenomenon can have their own alternative facts.
This means that for the quantum world there cannot be one truth: measurements from different positions will give different results and will be equally true. Thus, quantum physics
once again proved that objective reality does not exist.
But the laws of the quantum universe cannot be opposite to the laws of our macrocosm.
We are built out of quanta, which means that the laws of their existence must be identical to us.
However, we can neither prove nor disprove the existence of a reality that we do not perceive, and we must cut it off with Occam's razor . Or, to put it simply, it doesn't make sense to talk about the "existence" of something that "we" don't know about.
Both in space and in time there is only that which is perceived by consciousness. In other words, consciousness is the cause of the existence of anything.
Moreover, we can define consciousness as the property of the subject to give existence to himself and the world around him.
By the way, according to Einstein, quantum states have their own reality. regardless of human impact. His colleague and opponent, the outstanding physicist Niels Bohr, believed that it was impossible to predict the course of further events in quantum reality. Niels Bohr 's force led to the postulation of the principle of complementarity, according to which the observer is the decisive link in the observed picture.
Quantum superposition and presupposition in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) can be seen as a link between quantum physics and consciousness.
Quantum physics says that particles can be in several places or states at the same time.
This feature of physics is called quantum superposition.
The concept of "map is not territory" is perhaps the most important presupposition of NLP.
A map is not a territory, a model of the world is not the world itself, but a good map is STRUCTURALLY similar...
The map-to-territory relationship is a question of the relationship between symbol and object. Alfred Korzybski 's famous expression - "The map is not the territory" - means that an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself; in other words, the finger pointing to an object is not the object itself; the metaphorical representation of some concept is not the concept itself; the scientific theory that describes "objective reality" is not "objective reality" itself, etc.
That the map is not a territory means that the description of reality is not reality itself.
“The map is not the territory” is also a fundamental principle of Neurolinguistic Programming, used to mean that in fact no person in general has access to absolute knowledge of reality, only a set of beliefs about reality that he has acquired during his life is available to him. It is said to be important to realize that people's beliefs about reality and their knowledge of phenomena (the "map") is not reality itself or all the phenomena that they might know about (the "territory").
The founders of NLP borrowed this observation from Korzybski 's general semantics.
General semantics (eng. General Semantics , fr. semantic from Greek. σημαντικός - denoting) - an empirical discipline, which is a systematic methodology for studying how people interact with the world, react to the world, react to their own reactions and the reactions of other people, and, accordingly , how they change their behavior . General semantics was founded by Alfred Korzybski in the 1920s - 1930s .
General semantics and semantics are separate disciplines that should not be confused with each other . Technically, the name "general semantics" refers to Korzybski's study of semantic reactions , or the reactions of the whole human organism in the environment to an event in relation to the meaning of that event.
Alfred Korzybski defined general semantics as a general theory of evaluating facts, relationships, sensations, etc., not in terms of merely verbal definitions of what we say about meanings, but in terms of how evaluative reactions occur.
The general semantics goes even further. It studies not only words, statements and what they indicate in the real world, but also studies their influence on human behavior. For a student of general semantics, communication is not just words in the right sequence and in the right grammatical form (as in grammar), not just statements in the right relationship with other statements (as in logic), not just statements in the right relation to the real world. (as in semantics), but all this taken together, to which are added the reactions of the nervous system of a person (to words and statements) participating in communication.
Famous agnostics Bertrand Russell, Kant, Darwin, Steve Jobs and relativists Robert Oppenheimer, Andrei Sakharov, Mikhail Gorbachev, Alfred Nobel spoke about the absence of absolute truth. There is even relativistic quantum physics, which confirms all the positions of relativists about the existence of multiple truths at the same time.
How to use the existence of multiple truths in a person's life?
We can use any method based on the awareness that there are multiple truths. It can be general semantics or neurolinguistic programming or quantum psychology.
Where can we apply methods based on the understanding of the absence of absolute truth?
You can achieve peace in war.
Here you need to use two paths at the same time. First, the understanding that both sides of the conflict are right and wrong at the same time (they are in a quantum superposition). Then mutual programming of the opponent with the help of NLP.
In family problems and life conflicts.
A technique like achieving peace in war. At the heart of all family and life conflicts lies the false belief that there is only one truth and that it belongs to only one side of the conflict.
In mediation.
In the professional resolution of conflicts large and small, the mediator can succeed only after he explains to both parties the scientific basis for the presence of several truths in their dispute. And then apply one of the methods of persuasion based on the principles of general semantics and NLP.
You can help a dying person.
It is important here to let him realize that death is not an absolute truth. There is the truth that life continues after death and the truth of the laws of physics about the conservation of energy and about the quantum world. The thought experiment "Quantum Immortality" is very important. The result of helping a dying person is easily achieved using NLP and examples of general semantics.
In court and investigation.
In the investigation of crimes and in the conviction of the alleged criminal, the factor of the absence of absolute truth can become the main argument for both justifying and condemning a person. Moreover, if in law-abiding countries it is enough to prove this argument with the help of logic, then in countries where the investigative and judicial systems are corrupt, the main method of promoting several truths is quantum psychology. It is based on techniques that are deeper than NLP, such as psychological decoherence, quantum pseudo-telepathy, and quantum teleportation of human states.
Disclaimer about war and peace in Europe.
To realize the reality of this processes and find a way out of the problems they create, it is necessary to consider them from the standpoint of modern science, which claims that there is no absolute truth in any of them.
Each of the parties asserting its truth is right and at the same time wrong.
As the hero of the television project "The X-Files" said - "The truth is always somewhere nearby." And the best way out of any dispute about absolute truth is compromise and Occam's Razor.
Viktor Fersht, PhD
Professor
European Center of United Nations University for Peace