Physics to Philosophy and Back: A Search for the Limits of Physics

by Fedde Benedictus

What do we really know about the world? Physics utilizes complex equations to avoid having to answer philosophical questions like this. Consider, for example, the fact that the motion of particles is described in terms of straight lines, while any line that we can actually draw is never perfectly straight. Working physicists adopt many of such presuppositions, rarely stopping to question the correspondence between physical equations and reality. This has resulted in the common misconception that there is a clear divide between Newton's 17th century physics and that of Einstein's on account of different mathematical descriptions. However, if equations do not always represent reality, what can they tell us about reality?

This book focuses on some of the philosophical problems underlying all theories in physics, such as the nature of time (is time just 'that which is measured by a clock' or is it more than that?). It may seem as if these problems were more or less solved in the three-and-a-half centuries that have passed since Newton's time. But the philosophical 'open ends' were the same for Einstein and remain the same to this day. Philosophy and physics are two sides of the same coin.

Filled with personal anecdotes and amusing examples, this book provides the perfect introduction to the topic for readers with a non-scientific background. It also enables the reader to come to their own informed conclusion about the relation between physics and the reality in which we live.


Readers of popular science, popular physics, and philosophy. Physicists and amateur philosophers will also benefit.

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 19, 2024

About the author

Fedde Benedictus (1982) is geboren en getogen in het Friese Joure. Tijdens zijn opleiding natuur-/sterrenkunde aan de universiteit van Utrecht is hij begonnen met recreatief sportklimmen en halverwege zijn promotie-onderzoek in de filosofie van de natuurkunde is hij toegelaten tot het Nederlandse Paraklimteam. Op het Wereldkampioenschap paraklimmen in Parijs in 2016 is hij vierde geworden en nu traint hij voor zowel regionale als internationale wedstrijden, waaronder het Wereldkampioenschap paraklimmen in Innsbruck (september 2018).

Daarnaast is Benedictus universitair docent (natuurkunde) aan het AUC in Amsterdam en is hij redacteur voor een tijdschrift in de theoretische natuurkunde: 'Foundations of Physics'.

Benedictus heeft twee biografische boeken geschreven. Het eerste, 'Verval tot man', gaat over de periode vanaf het moment dat hij een hersenbloeding kreeg (1998) tot aan de meest recente operatie aan zijn hersentumor (2005). In het tweede boek, 'De rolstoel in de klimhal', vertelt Benedictus over zijn carrière in de wereld van het paraklimmen.