The irreversibility of psychological (?) processes

Experimentation ideally presupposes a closed and reversible system. A reversible system has invariants, and a replication of findings is possible. One may always, at least in principle, return to an earlier state, and no external (chance) factors disturb the processes. Natural science experiments are often attempted approximation to this. A human being is, as one has always known, in many ways an open and irreversible system. This means that a person is continously influenced and changed by the external world, including chance events, and then differences are irreversible, in the sense that they cannot be completely reiterated. An aquired differentiation cannot be undifferentiated, one cannot unlearn something, only learn something else. (Smedslund, 1987, s. 234-235)

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Experimentation ideally presupposes a closed and reversible system. A reversible system has invariants, and a replication of findings is possible. One may always, at least in principle, return to an earlier state, and no external (chance) factors disturb the processes. Natural science experiments are often attempted approximation to this. A solar system is, as one has always known, in many ways an open and irreversible system. This means that i.e. a planet is continously influenced and changed by the external world, including chance events, and then differences are irreversible, in the sense that they cannot be completely reiterated. An aquired differentiation cannot be undifferentiated, one cannot undo something, only do something else. (Smedslund, 1987, s. 234-235 / Goredom, 2005)

Hvor irreversible ting er, kan faktisk være kontekstuelt avhengig av hvilket perspektiv man bruker på fenomener. Månen beveger seg rundt jorden, jorden beveger seg rundt en sol som beveger seg med galaksen i rommet. Er ikke dette irreversibelt? Astronomien er en av de eldste naturvitenskapene, og har i seg selv sørget for flere paradigmeskifter for vitenskapen de siste hundre år. Mest kjent er sannsynligvis Einsteins relativitetsteorier, som forandret den naturvitenskapelige anskuelsen av kosmiske sammenhenger, samt jorden og kosmos’ opprinnelse.

Om ikke annet så er eksemplet over egnet til å vise hvor sårbart språket (common sense) er som medium for vitenskapelig tolkning av virkeligheten.