HS/SE
BA-KulT WTG 4
MA-GKWT 2, 5/1,7/1
MA-TGWT WTG 2, 3, 4
MA FW 7, 8, 9, 10
Hybridseminar
Beginn: 19.04.2022 - 28.06.2022
Today, some scientists and philosophers of science argue that science has made philosophy
obsolete. Others, like Carlo Rovelli , strongly defend the continuing relevance of philosophy
for contemporary scientific theory and practice. In this seminar, we will test the claim of Carl
Friedrich von Weizsäcker that “in normal science, philosophy is unnecessary; a greater
scientific revolution is impossible without philosophical thought”, by investigating the
importance of Plato and Aristotle in the thought of two of the founders of quantum
mechanics in the early 20th century: Werner Heisenberg and his student von Weizsäcker.
Among the basic questions for which these two great scientists turned to the Greeks for
inspiration were: What is knowledge? Can there be absolutely certain knowledge? If so, is it
restricted to a specific domain? If so, what methods and cognitive faculties shall we use to
investigate what falls outside that domain?
Heisenberg, Werner. 1942. Ordnung der Wirklichkeit, ed. H. Rechenberg, Munich, R. Piper.
Translation: Werner Heisenberg, Reality and its Order, edited by Konrad Kleinknecht with an
Introduction by H. Rechenberg and a commentary by E. P. Fischer, Cham: Springer Nature
Switzerland, 2019.
Von Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich. 1981. Ein Blick auf Platon. Ideenlehre, Logik, und Physik,
Reclam.
No advanced technical knowledge of either Greek philosophy or quantum mechanics is
presupposed. In order to fit in all required teaching before June 28, some weeks will require
3 hours of teaching rather than 1-5.
Dozent: John Michael Chase
