This is philosophy bites with me, Nigel.
Warburton, and me, David Edmonds.
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Not so long ago, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking declared that philosophy is dead.
Philosophy, he claimed, had nothing to teach physics.
But another distinguished scientist, the italian theoretical physicist Carlo Ravelli, is eager to come to philosophy's defense.
Carlo Revelli, welcome to philosophy Bites.
Thank you very much.
The topic we're going to focus on today is philosophy and physics.
What do you think the relationship between philosophy and physics is and should be?
I think the relationship exists and should be much stronger than what it is today.
It was stronger in the past.
Heisenberg, Einstein, Newton read philosophy with enormous interest and with enormous relevance to the work.
It has weakened after the war, in the second half of the 20th century, and I think this has not done good to physics and perhaps neither to philosophy.
If we go back to the classical period, it's impossible sometimes to distinguish between natural scientists and philosophers.
They were the same people speculating about the nature of the cosmos.
Yes, Newton was considering himself a philosopher and a scientist, and the kind of questions he would address are questions which are between philosophy and physics, like what is space?
What is time?