The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

This talk by David Harriman was recorded October 14, 2003, as part of the ARC Speaker Series.

For two centuries after Isaac Newton, the science of physics served as the leading example of the power of the human mind. Its basic content and method, and the life-saving technology that emerged from it, sent a message that resounded throughout the western world: man can live and prosper by the guidance of reason.

However, for the past century, theoretical physicists have been sending a different message. They have rejected causality in favor of chance, logic in favor of contradictions, and reality in favor of fantasy. The science of physics is now riddled with claims that are as absurd as those of any religious cult.

This lecture examines the historical development of such ideas and refutes the myth that they derive from experimental evidence. History shows that philosophers provided the irrational ideas, which physicists then incorporated into their theories. Philosophy is the inescapable foundation for physics, and the irrationalism of modern philosophy is the quicksand that engulfed physics in the 20th century. Mr. Harriman argues that our future depends upon saving physics—which can only be done by providing it with the solid ground of a rational philosophy.