Understanding Time by K.F. von Weizsäcker

Abstract

The work is devoted to the problem of understanding of time by the German physi­cist and philosopher Karl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. In the book “The Structure of Physics”, he convincingly challenges the point of view of physicists, according to which time is an illusion, and attempts to build physics based on a key under­standing of time. The scientist considers three modes of time: past, present and fu­ture. The past is factual and can be confirmed by documents. The future is seen as open, connected with a “fan of possibilities”. The key issue is to reduce the three modes of time to one, based on the concept of facticity. Weizsäcker shows that this is logically possible. When working, he relies on the methodological technique of “movement in a circle”. The initial assumptions on which the reasoning is based are questioned, then new assumptions are considered, and a new picture is built based on them. Accepting the thesis about the factuality of the future, the question arises about the “documents of the future”. Weizsäcker’s answer is original – these are phenomena of predictions or prophecies. Realizing the controversy of such a statement for modern science, Weizsäcker builds a “phenomenology of prophe­cies”. The existence of such “documents of the future” is a fact for him, although he admits that he cannot explain them either from the point of view of physics or within the boundaries of his theory. Solving this problem, he comes to the con­clusion that there must be another mode of time, the nature of which cannot be ex­plained within the framework of modern science