Deconstructing the Quantum Debate: Toward a Non-Classical Epistemology

This article focuses on the problem of the authenticity of knowledge. It argues that the failure to integrate the observer into the act of observing is the main source of the disagreements and divisions in contemporary science and scholarship. The article uses the quantum debate as a case study to illustrate this point. It also argues that a truly non-classical epistemology should abandon the traditional subject-object orientation and focus on the very process of construction which creates both the subject and the object. The understanding of this process in terms of the equilibrium between equilibrium and disequilibrium will be critical for such epistemological perspective. The article concludes with some illustrations that show how the new perspective can help resolve the paradoxes which plague contemporary knowledge. Key words: the quantum debate, non-classical epistemology, paradox of observing