What Erwin Schrödinger Said About the Upanishads
Quantum physics is one of the most remarkable developments of the 20th century, largely through the efforts of some of the 20th century's most well-known physicists, among them were Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg.
This was a crucial moment in history, when physics was in a state of major upheaval. The familiar classical picture of reality was being disrupted by one that seemed to be too crazy to be true, even as it explained numerous experimental observations that the former could not.
Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and others were deeply troubled by its implications. Indeed, they were faced with a personal dilemma: to believe a preposterous theory that worked or discard it for an intuitive theory that didn’t work.
At this critical juncture, they discovered that their notion, that the world we see is not reality itself but a projection onto our consciousness, wasn’t completely new. In the ancient Indian texts known as the Upanishads, they found echoes of their theories, and a philosophical foundation to ensure they would no longer be cast adrift by the implications of quantum mechanics.
The Upanishads are a collection of Sanskrit texts transmitted orally from teacher to student over thousands of years. While the Vedas prescribe rituals to appease deities, the Upanishads are concerned with the nature of reality, mind and the self.
Schrödinger was first exposed to Indian philosophy around 1918, through the writings of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. An ardent student of the Upanishads, Schopenhauer had declared, “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death.”
Continued
https://science.thewire.in/the-scie...m-mechanics-philosophy-of-physics-upanishads/
Quantum physics is one of the most remarkable developments of the 20th century, largely through the efforts of some of the 20th century's most well-known physicists, among them were Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg.
This was a crucial moment in history, when physics was in a state of major upheaval. The familiar classical picture of reality was being disrupted by one that seemed to be too crazy to be true, even as it explained numerous experimental observations that the former could not.
Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and others were deeply troubled by its implications. Indeed, they were faced with a personal dilemma: to believe a preposterous theory that worked or discard it for an intuitive theory that didn’t work.
At this critical juncture, they discovered that their notion, that the world we see is not reality itself but a projection onto our consciousness, wasn’t completely new. In the ancient Indian texts known as the Upanishads, they found echoes of their theories, and a philosophical foundation to ensure they would no longer be cast adrift by the implications of quantum mechanics.
The Upanishads are a collection of Sanskrit texts transmitted orally from teacher to student over thousands of years. While the Vedas prescribe rituals to appease deities, the Upanishads are concerned with the nature of reality, mind and the self.
Schrödinger was first exposed to Indian philosophy around 1918, through the writings of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. An ardent student of the Upanishads, Schopenhauer had declared, “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life. It will be the solace of my death.”
Continued
https://science.thewire.in/the-scie...m-mechanics-philosophy-of-physics-upanishads/
