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DEVIATIONS AND UNCERTAINTY: THE CONCEPT OF SWERVE IN EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS AND QUANTUM MECHANICS

R. Roman-Alcala

Abstract

The discontinuity of matter was originally postulated with an explicit purpose: to demonstrate the reality of movement. However, a deterministic and necessary movement eliminated the possibility of explaining freedom. Epicurus first, and Lucretius later, modified the doctrine of Democritus (founder of Greek atomism) in regard to a very important point, since they both admitted the spontaneous movement of swerving or clinamen of some atoms, as opposed to their stable fall, situating matter between reality and possibility. For its part, quantum mechanics also teaches that, since it is impossible to simultaneously fix the position and the moment of a particle it is impossible, in practice, to measure the position of atomic particles without intervening in the process, again situating matter between reality and possibility. Nonetheless, what is ironic about this situation is that even after 21 centuries this superstitious fear has not been eliminated. Science is still unable to explain all the principles of matter. It is true that the discovery of the Higgs Boson closes a chapter in the history of this discipline, but there remains much history to write. All the matter we know of (about which I am speaking in this talk), from the earth to the most distant galaxies, has the same fundamental structure—as was already intuited by the atomists of antiquity. It is made up of atoms that are simultaneously composed of particles that make up the various materials that we know of and whose number of protons and neutrons corresponds to different elements in the Periodic Table. What is interesting about this situation, even ironic, is that all the material that we are made of (what we could describe as “ordinary”) represents only a 4% of the universe, while the remaining 96% continues to be a mystery, what we call “dark matter” due to the lack of data. And things do not end there, because that “dark matter” only makes up 23% of the mass of the universe, which when added to the former matter gives a total of 27%. The question that immediately arises is: what is the remaining 73% made of? Of dark energy? Of antimatter? I, at least, don’t know.

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