Quantum Mind and Social Science

In this brilliant and seminal work, Alexander Wendt ambitiously transcends the assumption that consciousness and social life can be understood in terms of classical physics, and recasts the ontology of social science in quantum terms by defining consciousness as a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon. This represents a long overdue overhaul of assumptions and updates social thinking about the nature of reality. In classical terms, consciousness is often regarded as an anomaly and understood in mechanical or deterministic terms (there is no room for intention and free will), while it is integral to quantum theory, more so in some interpretations that others. The first chapter lays the groundwork for a quantum social science before three very lucid chapters explaining quantum mechanics and its challenges to the classical assumptions of materialism, atomism, determinism, mechanism, absolute space and time, and the subject-object distinction; there is also a very lucid account of five interpretations of quantum theory, including that of David Bohm.

The second part develops theme of quantum consciousness and life through quantum brain theory, a discussion of panpsychism and neutral monism and the formulation of what he calls a quantum vitalism. Here the author combines the physical claim that the brain is capable of sustaining coherent quantum states with the metaphysical claim of panpsychism that consciousness inheres in the very structure of matter. He discusses this with respect to cognition, experience and will. The key to his quantum vitalism or pansychism is quantum coherence and here draws on the work of Mae-Wan Ho. He makes the very interesting claim that the essence of life is in fact subjectivity - matter only becomes life when organised into quantum coherent wholes, and intentional phenomena are in fact quantum mechanical. He believes, rightly I think, that the new materialists have failed to come to grips with hard problem of consciousness and remain caught up in the limits of the classical world view. (p. 147)

The next part elaborates a quantum model of man, discussing cognition, choice agency and non-local experience in time. Then there is a section on the cultural entanglement implied by language and other minds, and the argument is brought together at an ontological level with the formulation of a quantum vitalist sociology where he summarises the shortcomings of the existing mainstream approach and argues for a new naturalism of quantum consciousness that allows human beings to be conscious, free and purposive. All this is underpinned by 'a phenomenological vitalism in which subjectivity is constituted by a physical but nonmaterial and unobservable life force: quantum coherence.' He sees humans as walking wave functions rather than classical machines so that human experience now has a home in the universe imbued with meaning. This book is a real game changer and an extraordinary interdisciplinary achievement that deserves the widest readership.