On Quantum Ontology in Social and Political Sciences

Abstract

Recently, the dominant philosophical paradigm in Western social and political sciences has been criticized by a number of researchers and the necessity of tran­sition to a new – quantum – transdisciplinary paradigm using ideas, concepts and formalism of quantum mechanics has been justified. The author argues that the need for such a transition is due to the fact that the dominant paradigm is based on outdated assumptions and premises of Modern philosophy, which really should be abandoned. It is quantum mechanics that contains the potential for a new philosophy. Classical mechanics had a significant impact on the develop­ment of philosophy, particularly on Kant’s critical philosophy, for which it served as the ideal of scientific knowledge. Today, a similar influence is exerted by quantum mechanics. Quantum ideas have also begun to be applied in the field of socio-political thought, particularly in the study of international relations, global politics, and global security. At the same time, the author argues that what many researchers take to be the “quantum paradigm” in the social and political sciences is in fact in many ways not so much an overcoming of the Modern para­digm as a postmodernist radicalization of it. In other words, the alternative they propose turns out to be a pseudo-quantum alternative. It is proposed the concep­tual scheme of a contextual quantum realism as a genuine quantum alternative.