Just a few generations ago, at the birth of quantum physics, all physicists received some schooling in philosophy. Einstein read Mach, Bohr read Kant. But the shifts in research funding and physics classrooms after World War II also led to broader shifts in university curricula. For Einstein and Bohr’s generation, philosophy was part of the core educational curriculum in central Europe. But in postwar America, it was (and is) relatively easy for an intelligent student to go all the way from kindergarten to a PhD in physics at a top-tier university without ever darkening the door of a
...more
