Returns to the Greeks: Conceptual Crisis, Interpretive Strategies, and the Role of the Ancient Greeks in Modern Physics

Abstract

This paper explores how modern physicists—Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and Rovelli—draw on Greek philosophy in different ways. For Schrödinger and Heisenberg, Greek ideas offer conceptual tools to address quantum theory’s challenges, with Schrödinger favoring pre-Socratic realism and continuity, while Heisenberg emphasizes Platonic and Aristotelian notions of potentiality and epistemic limits. Rovelli uses Aristotle to support scientific cumulativity, arguing older theories remain relevant within new frameworks. However, this conflates the recoverability of previous theories with historical continuity. The shift from Aristotelian to Newtonian physics represents a fundamental change in what counts as explanation, so references to the Greeks do not inherently guarantee cumulative knowledge; their impact depends on how Greek concepts are interpreted.