The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of this external world or of “physical reality” indirectly, we can only grasp the latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical reality can never be final.

This comes from 1931’s “Maxwell’s Influence on the Evolution of the Idea of Physical Reality.” Although this is an accepted principle, it does put a bit of a damper on the enthusiasm for the search of a unified field theory that bridges relativity and quantum mechanics.

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