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Wolfgang Smith

(Redirected from J. Wolfgang Smith)

Wolfgang Smith (February 18, 1930 – July 19, 2024) was an Austrian mathematician, physicist, philosopher of science, metaphysician, and member of the Traditionalist School. He wrote extensively in the field of differential geometry, as a critic of scientism and as a proponent of a new interpretation of quantum mechanics that draws heavily from premodern ontology and realism.

Wolfgang Smith
Born(1930-02-18)18 February 1930
Vienna, Austria
Died19 July 2024(2024-07-19) (aged 94)
Ventura, California, U.S.
EducationCornell University (BS)
Purdue University (MS)
Columbia University (PhD)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolRealism, Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, Traditionalism
Main interests
Metaphysics, Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy of science
Notable ideas
Splitting the scientific method from the scientistic philosophy, showing how the former can be joined to a Thomistic-based ontological realism, assigning to many hard sciences a place in such an ontological hierarchy; distinction between the "corporeal world" and the "physical universe"; vertical causation; irreducible wholeness

Biography

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Smith was born February 18, 1930, in Vienna. He graduated in 1948 from Cornell University with majors in philosophy, physics, and mathematics. Two years later he took his M.S. in physics at Purdue University and ultimately his Ph.D. in mathematics at Columbia University.

He worked as an aerodynamicist at Bell Aircraft Corporation in the early 1950s, and during this time researched and published on the problem of atmospheric reentry.[1] He was a mathematics professor at MIT, UCLA and Oregon State University, doing research in the field of differential geometry and publishing in academic journals such as the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Journal of Mathematics, and others. He retired from academic life in 1992.

In parallel with his academic duties, he developed philosophical inquiries in the fields of metaphysics and the philosophy of science, publishing in specialized journals such as The Thomist, Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, and Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies.[1]

Smith died in Ventura, California at the age of 94.[2]

Philosophical work

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Smith was a member of the Traditionalist School of metaphysics, having contributed extensively to its criticism of modernity while exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the scientific method and emphasizing the idea of bringing science back into a Platonist and Aristotelian framework of traditional ontological realism.

Identifying with Alfred North Whitehead's critique of the "bifurcationism" and "physical reductionism" of scientism — i.e., the belief that, first, the qualitative properties of the objects of perception ("corporeal" objects) are ultimately distinct from their respective quantitative properties (the "physical" objects studied by the various sciences); and second, that physical objects are in fact all there is, meaning corporeal objects are reduced to their physical counterparts — Smith examines critically in his work Cosmos and Transcendence (1984) the Cartesian roots of modern science.

Proceeding with his critique of scientism in his monograph, The Quantum Enigma (1995), Smith raised the questions of whether the scientific method is in fact dependent on the scientistic philosophy and, if it is not, whether linking it to other philosophical frameworks would provide better solutions to the way physical phenomena are interpreted. Demonstrating that neither the scientific method nor its results require adhering to a scientistic metaphysics, he answered in the negative to the first question, resulting in the conclusion that it is possible to link the scientific method to any underlying ontology, or to none at all. Working then into the second question, he proposed linking the scientific method — and thus the modern sciences — to a non-bifurcationist, non-reductionist metaphysics in the form of a modified Thomistic ontology, showing how such a move resolves the apparent incoherences of quantum mechanics.[3]

According to Smith, this interpretation of quantum mechanics allows for the usage of the hylomorphic concepts of potency and act to properly understand quantum superposition. For example, instead of considering that a photon is "simultaneously a wave and a particle" or "a particle in two distinct positions," one may consider that the photon (or any other physical object) at first does not exist in act, but only in potency; i.e., as "matter" in the hylomorphic meaning of the term, having the potential of becoming "a wave or a particle," or "of being here or there." Whether one of these outcomes will happen to this undifferentiated matter is dependent on the determination imposed upon it by the macroscopic corporeal object that provides its actualization. A photon, thus, would be no more strange for having many potentials than, say, an individual who has the "superposed" potentials of learning French and/or Spanish and/or Greek, all the while reading and/or walking and/or stretching his arms. A further consequence of this interpretation is that a corporeal object and its "associated physical object" are not dichotomized or reduced one to the other anymore but, on the contrary, altogether constitute a whole of which different aspects are dealt with depending upon perspective.[4]

Smith's understanding of the relationship between corporeal and physical objects extends to his interpretation of biology, where he became an opponent of Darwinian evolution, as the fundamental element in a species would be its form, not its causal history, which evolutionists favor. This led him to be a supporter of the intelligent design movement, though his own hylomorphic approach is not widely adopted by mainstream intelligent design theorists (who, like evolutionists, also favor causal history, albeit differently).[citation needed]

Smith also took a stance towards a relativistic rehabilitation of geocentrism. He did not support a Ptolemaic or medieval geocentrism unequivocally, nor assert that heliocentrism is absolutely false. Rather, he argued that, according to the theory of relativity, both heliocentrism and geocentrism have scientific merit, insofar as scientific observation depends upon the reference frame of the observer. Consequently, any observations made from Earth (or any near-Earth satellites) are in effect geocentric.[5][6]

Filmography

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Smith participated in Miracle (2019), a documentary by Mauro Ventura, with the participation of Raphael De Paola and Olavo de Carvalho.[7][8]

The End of Quantum Reality (2020), a documentary film about Smith's life and thought, ran in a limited national theatrical release in the U.S.[9][10][11]

Select bibliography

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Books

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Cosmos and Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)

Theistic Evolution: The Teilhardian Heresy (1988; originally published as Teilhardism and the New Religion)

The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key (1995)

Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions: A Critique of Contemporary Scientism (2004; originally published as The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology)

Christian Gnosis: From Saint Paul to Meister Eckhart (2008)

Science & Myth: With a Response to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design (2012)

In Quest of Catholicity: Malachi Martin Responds to Wolfgang Smith (2016)

Physics and Vertical Causation: The End of Quantum Reality (2019)

The Vertical Ascent: From Particles to the Tripartite Cosmos and Beyond (2021)

Vedanta in Light of Christian Wisdom (2022)

Physics: A Science in Quest of an Ontology (2023)

Articles

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General

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Articles on philosophy, religion, physics and non-mathematical subjects in general:

  • Iqbal, Muzaffar (January 2023). "Evolution, Causality, and Transcendental Truths: Wolfgang Smith in conversation with Muzaffar Iqbal". Islamic Sciences. 16 (1): 8–29. ISSN 1929-9435. OCLC 1645845. Retrieved 2024-08-06 – via JSTOR.
  • "The Extrapolated Universe". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 6 (1). Summer 2000. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Eddington and the Primacy of the Corporeal". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 6 (2). Winter 2000. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "The Pitfall of Astrophysical Cosmology". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 7 (2). Winter 2001. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Esoterism and Cosmology: From Ptolemy to Dante and Cusanus". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 8 (1). Summer 2002. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Modern Science and Guénonian Critique". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 9 (2). Winter 2003. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "The Enigma of Visual Perception". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 10 (1). Summer 2004. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Review of Journeys East, by Harry Oldmeadow". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 11 (1). Summer 2005. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Rama P. Coomaraswamy 1929–2006: In Memoriam". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 12 (2). Fall–Winter 2006. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Cosmology in the Face of Gnosis". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 12 (2). Fall–Winter 2006. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "Transcending the creatio ex nihilo: The Kabbalistic Exegesis". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 13 (1). Spring–Summer 2007. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.
  • "The Wisdom of Christian Kabbalah". Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies. 13 (2). Winter 2007–2008. ISSN 1521-1231. OCLC 39708929.

Mathematics

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Academic articles on mathematics signed as "J. Wolfgang Smith":

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Wolfgang Smith's life and work, World Wisdom.
  2. ^ "Dr. J. Wolfgang Smith". Legacy. 25 July 2024. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  3. ^ Flood, Anthony, Thomism and the Quantum Enigma.
  4. ^ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, A Review Essay of Wolfgang Smith's The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key, SE: ABC.
  5. ^ Smith, Wolfgang, The Status of Geocentrism, Sacred Web, archived from the original on 2018-06-03, retrieved 2013-05-01, Arguing that Tychonian geocentrism and Einsteinian acentrism are reconciled based on their different darshanas, Dr. Smith surveys the empirical evidence in favor of geocentrism and of heliocentrism, and makes out the case for geocentrism based on a science of relativistic physics that accords with traditional doctrine.
  6. ^ "VIII", The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology: Contemporary Science in Light of Tradition.
  7. ^ Ventura, Mauro (2019-04-04), Milagre (Documentary), IVIN Films, retrieved 2022-06-26
  8. ^ Milagre | Trailer Oficial, 5 April 2019, retrieved 2022-07-06
  9. ^ "The End of Quantum Reality" Vlog with guest Christian Meoli, Philos-Sophia Initiative.
  10. ^ Ivett, De. ""The End of Quantum Reality" Documentary". Philos-Sophia Initiative Foundation. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  11. ^ Thomas, Katheryne (2020-01-10), The End of Quantum Reality (Documentary), In Ohm Entertainment, retrieved 2022-07-06

References

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