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Single Idea 19481

[filed under theme 7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 2. Processes ]

Full Idea

Instead of very small things (atoms) combining to produce standard processes (snowstorms), modern physics envisions very small processes (quantum phenomena) combining to produce standard things.

Gist of Idea

Traditionally small things add up to processes, but quantum mechanics reverses this

Source

Johanna Seibt (Process Philosophy [2012], 4 (i))

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.12

A Reaction

Though electrons seem to be distinct things with a fixed set of properties, so this is not a clear point. Where do fields come into it? Beware of citing quantum mechanics in metaphysics!

The 21 ideas with the same theme [accepting purposeful sequences of happenings as existents]:

13213 All comings-to-be are passings-away, and vice versa [Aristotle]
15768 An actuality is usually thought to be a process [Aristotle]
15389 In Whitehead 'processes' consist of events beginning and ending [Whitehead, by Simons]
11092 A river is a process, with stages; if we consider it as one thing, we are considering a process [Quine]
12683 Objects and substances are a subcategory of the natural kinds of processes [Ellis]
22626 Process philosophy insists that processes are not inferior in being to substances [Rescher]
16554 Activities have place, rate, duration, entities, properties, modes, direction, polarity, energy and range [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14760 Four-dimensionalism sees things and processes as belonging in the same category [Sider]
8979 Slow and continuous events (like balding or tree-growth) are called 'processes', not 'events' [Simons]
8981 Maybe processes behave like stuff-nouns, and events like count-nouns [Simons]
12836 Fans of process ontology cheat, since river-stages refer to 'rivers' [Simons]
12841 I don't believe in processes [Simons]
14947 Any process can be described as transfer of measurable information [Ladyman/Ross]
23784 Processes don't begin or end; they just change direction unexpectedly [Williams,NE]
23790 Processes are either strings of short unchanging states, or continuous and unreducible events [Williams,NE]
14562 A process is unified as an expression of a collection of causal powers [Mumford/Anjum]
19480 Process philosophy places the dynamic nature of being at the centre of our theories [Seibt]
19479 Reductionists identify processes by their 'owner', but tornadoes etc. are processes without owners [Seibt]
19481 Traditionally small things add up to processes, but quantum mechanics reverses this [Seibt]
20468 Quantum mechanics deals with processes, rather than with things [Rovelli]
22629 Basic processes are said to be either physical, or organic, or psychological [Ingthorsson]