Prof. em. Dr. Herbert Pietschmann, Emeritus Professor at the Physics Faculty of the University of Vienna, Austria
Summary
The scientific age is characterised by a framework of thinking which is based upon Aristotelian logic combined with the axioms of experimentation and causality. Experimentation as expounded by Galileo demands reproducibility, quantification and limitation to simplified systems; this “analysis” of the world in which we live by models which are accessible to mathematical description is one of the most fundamental prerequisites of science. The six requirements of this framework of thinking are therefore:
• reproducibility
• quantification
• analysis
• clarity
• freedom from contradiction
• causal justification
This framework of thinking has proved so successful that it not only had to be adopted by other cultures but is accepted by us as the only “true” form of thinking; it is a characteristic of the “scientific age”. Yet over 80 years ago quantum physics rec...