On the Trouble with Physics

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the world has been under the sway of the philosophy of atomism, which holds that the parts are prior to the whole, and so that the world is an empty receptacle in which material objects are placed like furniture in an empty room. This philosophy however contradicts the General Theory of Relativity according to which the fundamental condition of the universe involves no space and time and therefore no matter, and has numerous undesirable consequences. It is argued here that the alternative conception -that the whole is prior to the parts, and that space disrupts light rather than the other way around- coheres with theory and with observation, and that it is supported by mathematical principles by reference to which several problems of physics can be solved.

自古希腊时代起，原子论哲学便主导了世人对世界的认知。该理论认为部分先于整体存在，进而将世界视作一个空荡的容器，物质客体如同家具般被置于其中，恰似空房间里的陈设。然而这一哲学观念与广义相对论（General Theory of Relativity）相悖：广义相对论指出，宇宙的基本构成并不包含时空，故而亦不存在物质，且原子论还会引出诸多不尽合理的推论。本文主张，与之相对的另一认知——即整体先于部分存在，且空间会对光线产生干扰而非反之——既与理论推导相符，也契合观测结果，同时该观念还得到了数学原理的支撑，借助这些数学原理可解决若干物理学难题。