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If Alpha [the Fine-structure Constant] Were Bigger Than It Really Is, We Should Not Be Able To Distinguish Matter From Ether [the Vacuum, Nothingness], And Our Task To Disentangle The Natural Laws Would Be Hopelessly Difficult. The Fact However That Alpha Has Just Its Value 1/137 Is Certainly No Chance But Itself A Law Of Nature. It Is Clear That The Explanation Of This Number Must Be The Central Problem Of Natural Philosophy.

I Have Tried To Read Philosophers Of All Ages And Have Found Many Illuminating Ideas But No Steady Progress Toward Deeper Knowledge And Understanding. Science, However, Gives Me The Feeling Of Steady Progress: I Am Convinced That Theoretical Physics Is Actual Philosophy. It Has Revolutionized Fundamental Concepts, E.g., About Space And Time (relativity), About Causality (quantum Theory), And About Substance And Matter (atomistics), And It Has Taught Us New Methods Of Thinking (complementarity) Which Are Applicable Far Beyond Physics.

Science?is So Greatly Opposed To History And Tradition That It Cannot Be Absorbed By Our Civilization.

It Is Natural That A Man Should Consider The Work Of His Hands Or His Brain To Be Useful And Important. Therefore Nobody Will Object To An Ardent Experimentalist Boasting Of His Measurements And Rather Looking Down On The 'paper And Ink' Physics Of His Theoretical Friend, Who On His Part Is Proud Of His Lofty Ideas And Despises The Dirty Fingers Of The Other. Experiment And Theory In Physics

Those Who Say That The Study Of Science Makes A Man An Atheist, Must Be Rather Silly People.