Three aspects of Weyls’ mathematical and philosophical ideas are discussed:- The problem of a mathematical analysis of the continuum in relation to philosophical debates about the concept of intuition around 1900.- Weyl`s intuitionist notion of mathematics as an act and its philosophical background in Kant and Fichte.- Science as a symbolic construction and its anthropological implications.

This is an introductory course in different areas and positions in the philosophy of physics. It falls into different parts, including one on the concepts of space and time and one on "symmetry and reality". To provide a rather brought insight, both classical (e.g., Leibniz) and contemporary readings (e.g., on recent debates on “structural realism”) will be discussed in each part of the seminar.

Since 1800 Schelling developed a philosophical conception according to which the philosophies of nature and of human freedom should complement each other. This conception will first be studied and then some of its continuations during the 19. and 20. century will be looked at (Peirce, Weyl).

The seminar aims at introducing into the philosophy of time, beginning with Aristotle up to the present.

Viewing physical theories as symbolic constructions came to the fore with the emancipation of the classical theory of the electromagnetic field from mechanics. The philosophical problems that nourished this development are today highlighted within quantum field theory. Both this develoment within physics and more general philosophies of pictures or symbols will be discussed in the lecture.

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