Zitate von Erwin Schrödinger

Brief an Franz Theodor Csokor, datiert Alpbach, 17. September 1960, zitiert in: Mein Leben, meine Weltansicht, mit einem Vorw. von Auguste Dick. - [Lizenzausg. ] - Zürich : Diogenes, 1989. (Diogenes Taschenbuch ; 21783) ISBN 3-257-21783-8 - innere Umschlagseite ohne Seitennummer

Was ist ein Naturgesetz? Antrittsrede an der Universität Zürich am 9. Dezember 1922. In: Was ist ein Naturgesetz? Beiträge zum naturwissenschaftlichen Weltbild. Oldenbourg (Scientia nova) München 1997. S. 9-85. S. 85 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=4hqc2tvawQMC&pg=PA85.

Geist und Materie, Zsolnay Verlag, Wien 1986, 4. Kap., S. 90, ISBN 3-552-03810-8

Geist und Materie, Zsolnay Verlag, Wien 1986, 4. Kap., S. 77, ISBN 3-552-03810-8

„Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem (Erste Mitteilung)“, Annalen der Physik 79 (1926), s. 361-376, § 3, S. 372 thp.uni-koeln.de http://www.thp.uni-koeln.de/natter/data/Schroedinger_Mitteilung1.pdf

Was ist Leben? Die lebende Zelle mit den Augen des Physikers betrachtet. Epilog: Determinismus und Willensfreiheit. Francke Bern 1951. S. 123 http://books.google.de/books?id=oEc_AAAAYAAJ&q=leitet; Piper München 1987, S, 122 online-media.uni-marburg.de http://online-media.uni-marburg.de/biologie/genetik/boelker/Wissenschaft/Erwin%20Schroedinger_Was%20ist%20Leben.pdf.
(Original englisch: "The only possible inference from these two facts is, I think, that I - I in the widest meaning of the word, that is to say, every conscious mind that has ever said or felt 'I' - am the person, if any, who controls the 'motion of the atoms' according to the Law of Nature." - What is Life? (1944). Cambridge UP p. 87 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=hP9-WIEyv8cC&pg=PA87

As quoted in The Observer (11 January 1931); also in Psychic Research (1931), Vol. 25, p. 91
Kontext: Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.

Mind and Matter (1958), p. 127
Kontext: The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist.

My View of the World (1961)
Kontext: This life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of this entire existence, but in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula which is yet really so simple and so clear; tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as "I am in the east and the west, I am above and below, I am this entire world."

Science and Humanism (1951)
Kontext: I am born into an environment — I know not whence I came nor whither I go nor who I am. This is my situation as yours, every single one of you. The fact that everyone always was in this same situation, and always will be, tells me nothing. Our burning question as to the whence and whither — all we can ourselves observe about it is the present environment. That is why we are eager to find out about it as much as we can. That is science, learning, knowledge; it is the true source of every spiritual endeavour of man. We try to find out as much as we can about the spatial and temporal surroundings of the place in which we find ourselves put by birth…

Nature and the Greeks (1954)
Kontext: The observing mind is not a physical system, it cannot interact with any physical system. And it might be better to reserve the term "subject" for the observing mind. … For the subject, if anything, is the thing that senses and thinks. Sensations and thoughts do not belong to the "world of energy."

What Is Life? (1944)
Kontext: In physics we have dealt hitherto only with periodic crystals. To a humble physicist's mind, these are very interesting and complicated objects; they constitute one of the most fascinating and complex material structures by which inanimate nature puzzles his wits. Yet, compared with the aperiodic crystal, they are rather plain and dull. The difference in structure is of the same kind as that between an ordinary wallpaper in which the same pattern is repeated again and again in regular periodicity and a masterpiece of embroidery, say a Raphael tapestry, which shows no dull repetition, but an elaborate, coherent, meaningful design traced by the great master.

Writings of July 1918, quoted in A Life of Erwin Schrödinger (1994) by Walter Moore

"The Oneness of Mind", as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber
Kontext: Consciousness is never experienced in the plural, only in the singular. Not only has none of us ever experienced more than one consciousness, but there is also no trace of circumstantial evidence of this ever happening anywhere in the world. If I say that there cannot be more than one consciousness in the same mind, this seems a blunt tautology — we are quite unable to imagine the contrary...

"The Mystic Vision" as translated in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (1984) edited by Ken Wilber
Kontext: It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling, and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings. But not in this sense — that you are a part, a piece, of an eternal, infinite being, an aspect or modification of it... For we should then have the same baffling question: which part, which aspect are you? what, objectively, differentiates it from the others? No, but, inconceiveable as it seems to ordinary reason, you — and all other conscious beings as such — are all in all. Hence, this life of yours... is, in a certain sense, the whole... This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula... 'Tat tvam asi' — this is you. Or, again, in such words as 'I am in the east and in the west, I am below and above, I am this whole world.'
Thus you can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth, with certain conviction that you are one with her and she with you … For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end.

Mind and Matter (1958)

Nature and the Greeks (1954)
Kontext: The scientific world-picture vouchsafes a very complete understanding of all that happens — it makes it just a little too understandable. It allows you to imagine the total display as that of a mechanical clockwork which, for all that science knows, could go on just the same as it does, without there being consciousness, will, endeavor, pain and delight and responsibility connected with it — though they actually are. And the reason for this disconcerting situation is just this: that for the purpose of constructing the picture of the external world, we have used the greatly simplifying device of cutting our own personality out, removing it; hence it is gone, it has evaporated, it is ostensibly not needed.

"The Fundamental Idea of Wave Mechanics", Nobel lecture, (12 December 1933)
Kontext: Conditions are admittedly such that we can always manage to make do in each concrete individual case without the two different aspects leading to different expectations as to the result of certain experiments. We cannot, however, manage to make do with such old, familiar, and seemingly indispensable terms as "real" or "only possible"; we are never in a position to say what really is or what really happens, but we can only say what will be observed in any concrete individual case. Will we have to be permanently satisfied with this...? On principle, yes. On principle, there is nothing new in the postulate that in the end exact science should aim at nothing more than the description of what can really be observed. The question is only whether from now on we shall have to refrain from tying description to a clear hypothesis about the real nature of the world. There are many who wish to pronounce such abdication even today. But I believe that this means making things a little too easy for oneself.

Science and Humanism (1951)
Kontext: I am born into an environment — I know not whence I came nor whither I go nor who I am. This is my situation as yours, every single one of you. The fact that everyone always was in this same situation, and always will be, tells me nothing. Our burning question as to the whence and whither — all we can ourselves observe about it is the present environment. That is why we are eager to find out about it as much as we can. That is science, learning, knowledge; it is the true source of every spiritual endeavour of man. We try to find out as much as we can about the spatial and temporal surroundings of the place in which we find ourselves put by birth…