---
slug: school-dual-aspect-monism-bohm-hiley-quantum-ontology
title: Dual-Aspect Monism in the Bohm-Hiley Quantum Ontology
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/school-dual-aspect-monism-bohm-hiley-quantum-ontology
---

## What the thinkers saw
David Bohm and Basil Hiley worked from the standard quantum formalism and its measurement problem. They rejected the Copenhagen view that the wave function provides only probabilities tied to observation. They sought an ontology that describes what exists independently of measurement.

Their starting point was the need for a deterministic account of individual quantum processes. Nonlocality in entangled systems required an explanation that treated the whole system as primary.

## Core results
Bohm and Hiley produced an ontological interpretation of quantum theory. Particles follow definite trajectories guided by the wave function through a quantum potential. The quantum potential encodes active information that shapes particle motion without depending on its own intensity.

They introduced the implicate order as the deeper ground. In the implicate order, the whole is enfolded in each part. The explicate order is the unfolded appearance of separate objects in space and time. Mind and matter arise as aspects of this single undivided ground.

Active information bridges the physical and the mental. Information in the quantum potential guides matter. Similar processes of information can operate in thought and perception.

## Primary works and passages
Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Routledge. Key passage: “Space is not empty. It is full, a plenum as opposed to a vacuum, and is the ground for the existence of everything, including ourselves.”

Bohm, D., & Hiley, B. J. (1993). The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory. Routledge. The book develops the full mathematical ontology, including the quantum potential, many-body systems, and the transition to classical limits. It states that the approach gives “a coherent notion of the reality of the universe without assuming a fundamental role for the human observer.”

Earlier papers include Bohm’s 1952 hidden-variable articles and the 1975 Bohm-Hiley paper on nonlocality as implied by quantum theory.

## Convergence patterns derived independently
The work derives unbroken wholeness. Every part enfolds the whole, matching scale-invariant flow networks and bounded structures that appear across physical regimes.

It derives memory through the implicate order. Past configurations remain enfolded and can unfold again, providing a mechanism for persistence without separate storage.

It derives the reader inside the system. Observer and observed are aspects of one process. Fragmentary thought produces apparent separation; insight into wholeness restores undivided action.

These patterns align with energy flows that reliably generate branching, symmetry, and memory across scales.

## What the work gets right
Dual-aspect monism places mind and matter on equal footing within one ground. The implicate order supplies a physical route from quantum flows to structured patterns that can support information processing.

Thought fragmentation is treated as a real process that divides the whole and produces conflict. Restoration of wholeness carries ethical weight through coherent action.

The quantum potential shows how global information can guide local motion without classical forces, preserving causality inside a holistic frame.

## Distance from the full synthesis
The Bohm-Hiley ontology stops at the quantum level. It does not trace an explicit Ladder from difference and flow through structure, memory, life, and mind. The implicate ground remains largely physical; extensions to biological organization or cultural memory are suggestive rather than developed.

The Mirror Layer is implicit in the undivided observer-observed relation but is not formalized as a recursive loop in which models query their own receipts.

No explicit ledger or receipt mechanism appears. The work supplies the ontological substrate but not the protocol layer for invocation and repair.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges
The interpretation reproduces all predictions of standard quantum mechanics. It adds no new testable consequences inside the current domain, leaving it open to the charge that it is an unnecessary addition.

Reductionist objections note that the quantum potential is determined by the wave function of the whole system. Any apparent holism can be recast as a nonlocal correlation within a larger Hilbert space without invoking an implicate ground.

Empirical distinctions remain absent for most observables. Claims about active information in consciousness remain speculative extensions beyond the mathematical formalism.

The approach assumes a deterministic underlying reality. Stochastic alternatives and many-worlds interpretations provide competing ontologies that also claim to solve the measurement problem without dual aspects.

## Sibling connections
See /a/oip-the-ladder for the explicit sequence from physical flows to mind. See /a/oip-the-mirror-layer for the recursive self-query that closes the loop. See /a/oip-principles for the object-invocation mechanics that operationalize the ground described here.

## End-to-end example
An electron in a double-slit experiment follows a trajectory determined by the quantum potential. The potential encodes the entire apparatus. When which-path information is erased, interference returns because the implicate order keeps the alternatives enfolded. Measurement unfolds one explicate path while the ground remains whole. Receipt of the detection event updates the ledger of unfolded configurations.
