Geometrization Versus Transcendent Matter: A Systematic Historiography of Theories of Matter Following Weyl

Abstract

This article investigates an intertwined systematic and historical view on theories of matter. It follows an approach brought forward by Hermann Weyl around 1925, applies it to recent theories of matter in physics (including geometrodynamics and quantum gravity), and embeds it into a more general philosophical framework. First, I shall discuss the physical and philosophical problems of a unified field theory on the basis of Weyl's own abandonment of his 1918 'pure field theory' in favour of an 'agent theory' of matter. The difference between agent and field theories of matter is then used to establish a sort of dialectic meta-view. With reference to Weyl this view can be understood as being a particular Fichtean transcendental idealist approach which attempts to combine the strengths of the Husserlian phenomenology and Cassirer's neo-Kantianism.

Introduction to the special issue Hermann Weyl and the philosophy of the ‘New Physics’

“…However, as Bernard underlines, the situation again changes in 1923e1924, when Weyl no longer endorses Husserl's phenomenology (see Bernard's contribution to this Special Issue). One can trace a new trend in Weyl's philosophical interests emerging in the mid-1920s, and focused on philosophers like Fichte, Cassirer, and Leibniz (see R€ oller, 2002;Sieroka, 2007Sieroka, , 2009Sieroka, , 2010Sieroka, , 2012Scholz, 2012). These philosophers captured Weyl's attention and prompted him to analyze the foundations of physics from a new perspective, leading to the publication of his masterpiece Philosophie der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaft (1927), a book in which we can also recognize Weyl's particular style of mixing scientific theories and philosophical reflections.…”