Physics - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 38

3

1

Photons ®Electrons® Molecules® Metabolons®Living Cells

2

Fig. 2.6 A diagrammatic representation of the postulate that the principle of complementarity is
universal and circularly causal .1 The progressive discovery of the principle of wave-particle

complementarity from simple to complex material systems; 2

¼

¼ the influence of physical

principles on our understanding of living systems; 3 ¼ the influence of the principles of biology

on our understanding of nonliving systems

2.3.6 Three Types of Complementary Pairs
(or Complementarities)

There are numerous complementary pairs suggested in the literature. Kelso and
Engstrøm (2006) list over 450 pairs and Barab (2010) over 100, but only a small
fraction of these “complementary pairs” appear to satisfy the three logical criteria
of complementarity proposed in Sect. 2.3.3 , and most of them satisfy only one or
two of them. Therefore, it may be useful to classify complementary pairs (or
complementarities) into three types as shown in Table 2.12 .
Type I complementary pairs satisfy the exclusivity criterion only (see the second
row in Table 2.12 ), as was the case for the two types of the consciousnesses that
James invoked on the basis of his observation on a patient exhibiting the phenome-
non of hysterical anesthesia (James 1890). The views of Einstein and Bohr may be
said to exemplify a Type I complementarity, since their theories of quantum reality
are mutually exclusive (determinism vs. contextualism) (Herbert 1987). The body
and mind dichotomy as conceived by Descartes qualifies as an example of Type I
complementarity, since mind and body are mutually exclusive according to
Descartes. Type I complementarity may be referred to as the Jamesian complemen-
tarity or psychological complementarity since James (1890) introduced the adjec-
tive “complementary” into psychology.
Type II complementary pairs satisfy two of the three complementarian criteria -
i.e., Exclusivity and Essentiality (see the third row in Table 2.12 ). The wave
and particle attributes of photons (demonstrated by Einstein 1905) and electrons
(predicted by Broglie in 1923 and experimentally confirmed about 5 years later)
constitute Type II complementarity, since waves and particles are both mutually
exclusive (at

least under most experimental conditions, although exceptions