Physics and Philosophy

Abstract

I was informed by Jagdish Mehra that some discussion on the question of physics and philosophy would be of interest to the participants in the symposium, and I agreed to talk about it. I am glad to express some of my views on physics and philosophy. I wondered what might be interesting and I thought that the problem could perhaps be dealt with in four steps: a discussion of objectivism which has been so much in our minds at this symposium, a mention of positivism, the philosophy of Kant, and then the philosophy of Plato, which I consider to be important in this respect.

Editor’s note: The Symposium was almost over when numerous participants requested us to arrange a discussion on ‘physics and philosophy’. At the last minute we asked Professor von Weizsäcker to give an introduction to the subject. His spontaneous remarks were deeply appreciated by all and led to a fruitful discussion.