Resumen de The new non-classical
The paper addresses a possible shift in the classification of science into classical and non-classical. It has been widely accepted that Galilean-Newtonian mechanics is the basis and best example of classical science, while quantum mechanics and the theories of relativity play the same role at the non-classical side. Some methodologists (most notably Prigoginians) claim that in addition to the mentioned distinction one should speak about post-non-classical science. The latter case of Ilya Prigogine’s conception (theory?) of selforganization has been taken as the model case. The third member in the classifying sequence, however, has failed to gain general recognition. It is obviously possible to drop the post-non-classical story as an overestimation of the influence of some relatively marginal approach to the scientific method. However, another solution is possible as well. As a matter of fact, one can view both the theories of relativity and quantum theory as classical and move the dividing line between two types of science closer to the present day in the history of science. Quantum mechanics is quite different from the classical one in several significant ways, i.e. indeterminism and the role of the observer, to name just some of the most influential ones. It may look as if self-organizationists did not really do anything else but put a stronger stress on some aspects already put forward by the big wigs of the non-classical approach. However, it is the issue of irreversibility that may well turn the tables here. The Schrödinger equation is reversible. For Einstein, time was just an illusion. It is Prigogine, who has been consistently claiming that irreversibility is an objective fact inherent in nature and not something that subjectively seems to us humans due to the limited character of our knowledge. It appears that we cannot get rid of irreversibility in principle just like the Eleatics were not able to arrest the Heraclitean change.
