The Uncertainty Principle, an axiom of quantum mechanics, holds that an observer can only focus in on one aspect of a subatomic particle: either its speed or its position. The more the observer achieves clarity with respect one of these aspects, the blurrier the other aspect becomes.
Quantum physics in particular, the study of the behavior of reality on a subatomic level, lends itself to philosophical speculation and more general applicability in the realm of metaphysics. Yet many of its devotees would exclude such discussions as impure. In fact, some online forums have specifically excluded discussions about its wider ramifications in the past. Such is their right.
Perhaps, though, we should consider the fact that pure science originally stems from philosophical inquiry. The experimental method, broadly speaking, derives from the Socratic method, a philosophical Q and A designed to elicit answers not from a teacher who replies to questions posed by the student, but from the student who has her own answers within. The scientific method is at root a dialogue which asks questions, and then proposes, through its method, to arrive at answers.
Nowhere could the possibilities of the Uncertainty Principle be more aptly applied in a broader sense, outside the realm of pure scientific inquiry, than to our understanding of good and evil. As noted, the Uncertainty Principle applies to our observations of the particle: its position and momentum. In quantum physics, particles have both a point-like nature, according to the Standard Model of Physics, and a wave nature. Entities such as electrons can be expressed and conceived of mathematically as point-particles, and alternatively as waves. In the newer ideas of String Theory, which seeks to unite the micro world of quantum mechanics with the macro world of Einstein’s relativity, point-particles are replaced by torus-like vibrating strings. Although a string is not a wave per se, it’s also not treated as a particle for mathematical purposes. I bring this up to show how physics deals with material and mathematical dualities. Why, then, can we not apply it to philosophical dualities as well? What if we applied it to that most ultimate of dualities, the nature of good and evil?
It has often been said that the unmediated experience of ultimate reality is beyond human notions of good and evil, and that it is impossible for any human to experience these opposites simultaneously in their raw forms. The Uncertainty Principle applied to the dual nature of good and evil would provide an explanation as to why we cannot, as humans, understand or grasp good and evil simultaneously.
We tend to think of God as the embodiment of ultimate good. Perhaps this is true. It is impossible for any one of us to know all of God with certainty. This would suggest that the mystery of the ultimate is beyond human comprehension. It is, at root perhaps, one of paradox. Paradox is the reconciliation of seemingly opposing truths. Yet note the dual nature of such opposites inherent in every paradox. God, or the Greater Personality, as it is sometimes referred to, supposes a unity of these opposites we call good and evil. In our Western tradition, derived from Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion of Persia, these opposing forces are at everlasting war with one another, and are not understood as a unified force.
It may simply be beyond human ability to hold both good and evil in our embrace and understanding at any one moment. In Genesis, Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In attempting to capture that knowledge, their innocence was forever lost and they were expelled from paradise. In the myth of Babel, the fall was at root of a similar nature. Humanity sought an ultimate knowledge by building an edifice to heaven, and God took away the ladder. And we all know what happened to Prometheus when he stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity.
C.G. Jung wrote that all opposites were unified in the pleroma, that which is beyond thought, in a way in which they cancelled each other out. He believed that our goal was to unify all opposites within ourselves. Yet we are perspective-dependent beings. The Uncertainty Principle and wave-particle duality may inform us that as observers, we cannot capture the paradoxical nature of reality wholly. We can only hold one aspect of it in awareness at any given time, and not the whole scheme in simultaneity.
The Uncertainty Principle is perhaps a modern expression of this ancient understanding. It reflects a fundamental uncertainty in our comprehension of duality. It is when we apply the faculty of judgment and attempt to understand these elemental forces that we claim complete knowledge. It is perhaps in this exercise of judgment that our fundamental error lies. All other problems may proceed from this assumption that we can hold the verity of both opposites at the same time.
2025 by Michael C. Just