Eugene Wigner’s ‘Remarks on the Mind-Body Question’: Idealism, Materialism, Consciousness

This essay is mainly about Eugene Wigner’s position on the wave function and its relation to what he called “sensations” and “impressions”. It also connects all of that to idealism, and the role of consciousness in quantum mechanics.

New Agers, spiritual commentators, and some idealists have created multiple images (or memes) with the words of a small number of famous physicists embedded within them. The passages quoted are nearly always the same ones. Indeed, they’ve been used countless times. These passages are often little more than a single sentence. And, as ever, they’re taken completely out of any context. All this quoting of famous physicists is usually (or even always) done for one reason, and for one reason only: to advance various spiritual and religious beliefs (often about “cosmic consciousness”) which have virtually nothing to do with physics qua physics.

(i) Introduction
(ii) Was Eugene Wigner a Positivist?
(iii) Eugene Wigner on “Impressions” and “Sensations”
(iv) Wigner on Sensations and the Wave Function

Writers must be careful when discussing Eugene Wigner’s philosophical views.

For a start, no one could deny that his paper ‘Remarks on the Mind-Body Question’ (which I’ll be concentrating upon) has inspired at least some New Agers, idealists and spiritual commentators. (At least those who feel the need to mention scientists to back up what they already believe.)

Actually, it’s lines and passages from that paper that New Agers and spiritual commentors quote…. Or, even more accurately, the often-used quotes from that paper are what such people quote. In other words, they quote the quotes, rather than the paper itself. (As can be seen in the main image for this essay, requotes often appear in the form of social-media memes.)