Erwin Schrodinger — "But the truth is that we are not living in a world of objects, but in a world of…"
But the truth is that we are not living in a world of objects, but in a world of events.
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More from Erwin Schrodinger
"If we are to be honest, we must admit that the present state of physics offers no hope of a satisfactory picture of the world."
"The world is a symphony, and we are the instruments."
"The world is not made of atoms, it is made of stories."
"The great difficulty is to get rid of the idea that we are separate from the world."
"The world is not 'out there' independent of our consciousness. It is a construction of our minds."
About Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)
Austrian physicist who shared the 1933 Nobel for the wave equation that bears his name and the famous cat thought-experiment. Closely associated with Werner Heisenberg (matrix-mechanics rival who reached the same physics by different math) and Albert Einstein (his pen-pal on quantum interpretation). For an intellectual contrast, see Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and architect of the Copenhagen interpretation — Schrödinger's cat thought-experiment was specifically designed to ridicule Bohr's 'observer-dependent reality' reading of quantum mechanics — Schrödinger thought the Copenhagen interpretation was absurd; the cat was meant as reductio ad absurdum.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Reality is not made of static, fixed things sitting in space. Instead, existence is a continuous flow of happenings, interactions, and processes. What we call 'objects' are actually patterns of ongoing events — stable-seeming configurations within a dynamic universe. Nothing is truly frozen or permanent; everything is relational, contextual, and unfolding in time.
Relevance to Erwin Schrodinger
Schrödinger, who formulated the wave equation describing quantum particles as probability waves rather than definite objects, lived this insight professionally. His famous cat paradox demonstrated that quantum systems exist in superposed states until observed — events, not things. His later work in 'What Is Life?' extended this process-thinking to biology, showing his worldview consistently favored dynamic processes over static matter.
The era
Mid-20th century physics had shattered the classical Newtonian picture of solid, billiard-ball objects obeying deterministic laws. Quantum mechanics, relativity, and field theory all converged on a universe of fields, probabilities, and interactions. Philosophers like Whitehead were simultaneously developing 'process philosophy.' Schrödinger wrote amid this intellectual revolution, when science was fundamentally reconceiving nature from substance to event.
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