Philosophical Aspects of Physics in the Works of W. Heisenberg: What Is Reality?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of “reality” in the philosoph­ical and scientific works of the theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg. It ana­lyzes the Heisenberg’s works on the philosophy of natural science, a significant part of which is devoted to quantum theory and its basic concepts. The author shows that Heisenberg’s thought was formed in parallel with the development of relevant problems among neo-Kantian philosophers (N. Hartmann, B. Nicolescu, etc.) throughout the 20th century. According to the author, many European re­searchers focus their attention on the scientific side of Heisenberg’s work, that is, on the analysis of his physical argumentation. The philosophical aspects of Heisenberg’s works are mostly studied by Russian philosophers of science. The intellectual vector of Heisenberg’s work was the idea of the need for a new philosophical thinking that goes beyond the scope of rational activity and re­quires a reconception of the gnoseological categories used as an instrument for the cognition of the reality. It relies on the phenomenological tradition, as well as on the arguments of J.W. von Goethe that theory cannot “capture” reality; it re­quires a synthesis of “trust in experience” and “intelligent observation” (discre­tion) to understand it. It is also demonstrated in the article the Heisenberg's atti­tude to the formation of the language of science and to the comparative studies of the philosophical systems of such thinkers as Plato, Democritus, Aristotle.