C.F. von Weizsäcker’s Reconstruction of Physics: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker’s thinking has always crossed the borders between physics and philosophy. Being a physicist by training he still feels at home in the physics community, as a philosopher by passion, however, his mind cannot stop thinking at the limits of physics. His physical ideas are based on the general conceptual and methodological preconditions of physical theories. The above quotation does indicate this: Heisenberg’s hint on symmetry as a natural starting point for a physicist — even though already philosophically motivated by Plato — left Weizsacker “dissatisfied.” He even wanted to explore the reasons for the symmetries themselves.