2026 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 21-35
This paper explores a structural affinity between quantum physics and phenomenological philosophy by rethinking the measurement problem in quantum mechanics from an ontological rather than epistemological perspective. Tracing the historical parallel between early 20th-century developments in physics and philosophy, the study argues that quantum measurement, like perception in phenomenology, entails an irreducible interaction of observer and observed. Revisiting the Copenhagen interpretation and the thought experiments of Schrödinger and Heisenberg, the paper critiques the limits of classical realism and representational epistemology. Drawing on the phenomenological developments from Husserl to Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, it proposes that the quantum apparatus, like the lived body, constitutes an expressive field that discloses reality through interaction. This leads to a reinterpretation of ontology in terms of sensibility and event. In the final section, Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh is connected to Karen Barad’s agential realism, emphasizing the intra-active constitution of phenomena and the generativity of touching. The paper concludes by proposing a post-Cartesian ontology in which reality is not composed of pre-existing objects, but arises from the intersection of sensibilities. This framework not only provides new philosophical grounds for understanding quantum phenomena as neither fully representable nor entirely indeterminate, but also establishes a foundational ontology that bridges physics and the humanities—offering fresh perspectives on being as relational, generative, and inseparable from embodied experience.
