Summary
Erwin Schrodinger: Nature and the Greeks
Lectures held on May 24, 26, 28, and 31, 1948 at University College London Erwin Schrodinger was one of the last great scientists who, without reservation, could be said to have been a philosopher as well. However, how to distinguish between a scientist and a philosopher? This difference seems intuitively clear to us until we try to determine its content. Then problems arise. Schrodinger, however, shows that the difference lies in the degree of formalization of language. A scientist uses a highly formalized, specialist language (mathematics is one such language), while a philosopher, no matter how complicated his theory, speaks in everyday language. In his lectures from 1948, entitled Nature and the Greeks, Schrodineger left his "natural environment", i.e. the language of scientists (although not entirely: he threw in a formula here and there), and turned to philosophical language, although he basically did the same thing: he tried to penetrate nature and its laws. It was this combination of scientific invention and philosophical curiosity that led to an original and lively approach to the ancient Greeks and their ingenious insights.
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