Biology Reference
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C
Level 2
Transcendentality
Level 1
A
B
Fig. 2.5
An iconic representation of the
complementarian logic
. Each node is occupied by one of
the three entities constituting a complementary relation (e.g., wave, particle, light), and the edges
have the following meanings: A-B
¼
Exclusivity; A-C or B-C
¼
Essentiality; Levels 1 and
2
¼
Transcendentality.
into waves and waves into particle. Hence
complementarity
and
supplementarity
may be distinguished on the basis of the Exclusivity criterion. If the condition is
found under which particles and waves can be interconverted, then complemen-
tarity and supplementarity may lose their distinction under such conditions. For
convenience, we may refer to such conditions as
the U point
, where the capital
letter U stands for
uncertainty
, and the parameter whose numerical value
characterizes the U point may be denoted by U in analogy to the Planck constant
h
that characterizes the point where quantum effects become nonnegligible.
Thus, in terms of the concept of the U point, the Exclusivity criterion and
hence the distinction between complementarity and supplementarity are mean-
ingful only above the U point and lose their meanings below it, just as space and
time lose their individuality when objects move with speeds close to that of light,
c, or just as the de Broglie waves lose their practical consequences when the
momentum of moving objects becomes large.
2.
Essentiality
. A and B are both essential for completely describing/understanding
a third term C. Light cannot be described completely in terms of either particle or
wave properties alone but both these properties are
essential
to our understanding
of the nature of light or any other “quantum objects” often called “quons” or
“wavicles” (Herbert 1987, p. 64).
3.
Transcendentality
. C transcends the level of description where A and B have
meanings and serves as the source of, or as the ground for, the irreconcilably
opposite A and B. The quality of light as directly perceived through the human
eye transcends the level of instrument-mediated observations/measurements
where it is registered as either waves or particles.
These three elements of the complementarian logic can be represented diagram-
matically as a triangle (Fig.
2.5
):
The complementarian logic helps to distinguish
supplementarity
from
comple-
mentarity
because the former does not satisfy the conditions of Exclusivity and
Transcendentality. Thus, most of the over 200 “complementary pairs” that Kelso
and Engstr
om (2006) list in their topic, Complementary
Nature
, may be considered
as “supplementary pairs” according to the complementarian logic.
Complementarity began its philosophical career as Bohr's interpretation of
quantum mechanics (Murdoch 1987; Lindley 2008; Plotnitsky 2006), but the
complementarism (see Sect.
2.3.4
) that I formulated in the mid-1990s (Ji 1993,
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