Hermann Weyl - Matter Quotes

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Space and time are commonly regarded as the forms of existence of the real world, matter as its substance. A definite portion of matter occupies a definite part of space at a definite moment of time. It is in the composite idea of motion that these three fundamental conceptions enter into intimate relationship.

Hermann Weyl
First, the physicists in the persons of Faraday and Maxwell, proposed the "electromagnetic field" in contradistinction to matter, as a reality of a different category. Then, during the last century, the mathematicians, … secretly undermined belief in the evidence of Euclidean Geometry. And now, in our time, there has been unloosed a cataclysm which has swept away space, time, and matter hitherto regarded as the firmest pillars of natural science, but only to make place for a view of things of wider scope and entailing a deeper vision. This revolution was promoted essentially by the thought of one man, Albert Einstein.

Hermann Weyl
With Mie's view of matter there is contrasted another, according to which matter is a limiting singularity of the field, but charges and masses are force-fluxes in the field. This entails a new and more cautious attitude towards the whole problem of matter.

Hermann Weyl
We must await the further development of science, perhaps for centuries, before we can design a true and detailed picture of the interwoven texture of Matter, Life and Soul. But the old classical determinism of Hobbes, and Laplace need not oppress us any longer.

Hermann Weyl
But it seems an irony of creation that man's mind knows how to handle things the better the farther removed they are from the center of his existence. Thus we are cleverest where knowledge matters least....

Hermann Weyl
Not the state of rest, but the states of uniform translation form an objectively distinguished class of motions, and this puts an end to the substantial ether. Finally, and fourthly, the general relativity theory re-endows this metric world structure with the capacity of reacting to the forces of matter. Thus, in a sense, the circle is closed.

Hermann Weyl