QuoteProject
What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.
Erwin Schrodinger
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that physical reality is merely a manifestation of the underlying fabric of space.

Erwin Schrodinger's quote highlights the idea that what we perceive as physical objects and forces in the universe are actually just different configurations of space itself. This implies a deeper philosophical understanding of reality, where material existence is not as concrete as it appears, emphasizing the importance of the fundamental structure of space in shaping our perceptions of the world.

Themes

RealitySpacePerceptionScienceMaterial

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on quantum physics, one could use this quote to illustrate the nature of reality.

More from Erwin Schrodinger

Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
A careful analysis of the process of observation in atomic physics has shown that the subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
There is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction... The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.
Erwin SchrodingerRead
Consciousness is a singular for which there is no plural.
Erwin SchrodingerRead

Similar quotes

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we'll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.
Jeff BezosRead
There are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end ofthe search for the ultimate laws of nature.
Stephen HawkingRead
We do not draw conclusions with our eyes, but with our reasoning powers, and if the whole of the rest of living nature proclaims with one accord from all sides the evolution of the world of organisms, we cannot assume that the process stopped short of Man. But it follows also that the factors which brought about the development of Man from his Simian ancestry must be the same as those which have brought about the whole of evolution.
August WeismannRead
Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules; and history records that whenever science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Every mode of transport that we use - whether it's planes, trains, automobiles, bikes, horses - is reusable, but not rockets. So we must solve this problem in order to become a space-faring civilization.
Elon MuskRead
A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.
John B. S. HaldaneRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.