How Quantum Mechanics Suggests New Insights in Metaphysics and Natural Theology

This paper examines complementarity, a concept introduced by Niels Bohr for interpreting quantum mechanics (QM). I will explain that QM has three basic features: the event, the correlations, and the dynamics. These features stem from the nature of quantum information, which is a general paradigm (far more general than classical information) covering the emergence of any dynamic system. It can explain the arising of classically physical systems, but also the emergence of life. If these features of QM are so general, we may ask how philosophers may perceive them. Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Sanders Peirce took this path. Dynamics can be understood as a trade-off between local events and “non-local” quantum correlations, results that were partly anticipated by Peirce and Whitehead. Moreover, according to Peirce, the reason why the three features of QM are so general is that they are imago Dei; that is, they show a Trinitarian structure. I will also briefly consider some consequences for natural theology.