  Orthodox Copenhagen quantum theory renounces the quest to understand the
reality in which we are imbedded, and settles for practical rules that describe
connections between our observations. Many physicist have believed that this
renunciation of the attempt describe nature herself was premature, and John von
Neumann, in a major work, reformulated quantum theory as theory of the evolving
objective universe. In the course of his work he converted to a benefit what
had appeared to be a severe deficiency of the Copenhagen interpretation, namely
its introduction into physical theory of the human observers. He used this
subjective element of quantum theory to achieve a significant advance on the
main problem in philosophy, which is to understand the relationship between
mind and matter. That problem had been tied closely to physical theory by the
works of Newton and Descartes. The present work examines the major problems
that have appeared to block the development of von Neumann's theory into a
fully satisfactory theory of Nature, and proposes solutions to these problems.
