Breaking the Barriers: ontological aspects of relation and mutuality in contemporary theories of atomic structure and in philosophy of personalism

Abstract

The paper focuses on the interdisciplinary field between the sciences and the humanities. It explores the subject matter of breaking barriers and ‘individuality’ in terms of the subatomic particles as building blocks of the matter and the human beings according to existentialism and personalism as philosophical traditions. The ‘overcoming the barrier’ theme is considered in a twofold perspective in this paper: on the one hand, as an ontological, structural and organisational principle, and, on the other hand as a condition for interaction, relation and mutuality. Theoretical and conceptual references to some of the fundamental ideas and concepts of the Quantum Mechanical Model of the atom and the Standard Model of particles are made, emphasising the primary importance of the entanglement as the variation of relationality and mutuality in the field of natural sciences. Moreover, references are made as well as to Martin Buber’s and Emmanuel Lévinas’s philosophy. This paper will serve as a basis for the development of an interdisciplinary series of seminars in the Secondary school curriculum aiming to deepen the relation between the natural sciences (chemistry and physics) and the humanities.