If we were bees, ants, or Lacedaemonian warriors, to whom personal fear does not exist and cowardice is the most shameful thing in the world, warring would go on forever. But luckily we are only men — and cowards.
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
"I consider science to be an integral part of our endeavour to answer the one great philosophical question which embraces all others, the one that has puzzled man from earliest times: Who are we? What …"
"The future is not predetermined, but is open to our choices and actions."
"The number of children born to a marriage ought to be limited, and that a man who has already had some children should be sterilized."
"The plurality that we perceive is only an appearance; it is not real. Vedantic philosophy... has sought to clarify it by a number of analogies."
"The more deeply we penetrate into nature, the more we find that it is full of mysteries."
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.
A witty and cynical observation on human nature and conflict.
Date: Mid 20th century
GeneralFound in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
Humans are fortunate to feel fear and cowardice, because these emotions act as natural brakes on endless warfare. Unlike creatures or societies driven purely by collective duty and fearlessness, ordinary people's instinct for self-preservation ultimately limits how long conflicts can sustain themselves. Our weakness, paradoxically, saves us from perpetual destruction.
Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist who lived through both World Wars, witnessed firsthand the catastrophic violence sweeping Europe. He fled Nazi Germany in 1933 due to his opposition to fascism, demonstrating personal moral courage. His scientific worldview emphasized uncertainty and complexity over rigid determinism, making him naturally skeptical of absolutist martial ideologies that demanded total sacrifice.
Schrödinger lived through the most destructive wars in human history. World War I shattered European civilization, and World War II brought industrialized genocide and nuclear weapons. Totalitarian regimes glorified self-sacrifice and warrior cultures, demanding citizens suppress fear for the state. Against this backdrop, celebrating human cowardice as a civilizational safeguard was a pointed, even subversive, philosophical statement.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].
Your cart is empty
