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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 2: Philosophy of Science

AGPhil 2.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 16:30–17:00, A 060

Simplicity to its Extreme - Why Physics Needs to Question the Notion of Space and Time — •Alexander Unzicker — Pestalozzi-Gymnasium München

The question whether the laws of nature must be simple and how simplicity can be defined, definitely touches the border between physics and philosophy. Inspired by the little known correspondence between Albert Einstein and Ilse Rosenthal-Schneider, it is argued that the number of fundamental constants is a key element of simplicity and must be as small as possible. In this view, one must also ask why the most fundamental constants of physics, the speed of light c and Planck's constant h, do exist at all.

Plainly speaking, both c and h presented anomalies to Newtonian physics that were neither necessary nor predicted by the founder of classical physics. As a consequence, we must ask whether the axiomatic postulates of Newton, space and time, have actually been falsified by the appearance of c and h. Taking this point of view, also relativity and quantum physics would be just workarounds that left fundamental problems untouched. Though it seems to be an unsettling perspective, space and time itself, the very basis of both classical and modern physics, may be inappropriate notions for describing reality.