1858 – 1947
Max Planck (1858-1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta in 1900 founded quantum theory and revolutionized modern physics. While primarily a scientist, his philosophical reflections on causality, free will, and the relationship between science and religion influenced 20th-century philosophy of science.
Founded quantum theory by introducing the concept of energy quanta (1900)
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1918) for the discovery of energy quanta
Formulated Planck's law of black-body radiation and Planck's constant
Wrote influential essays on the philosophy of science, causality, and religion
Defended scientific realism and the unity of nature against positivism
Reichenbach was not able to recognize the Weyl method as other than an equivalent account of empirical determination of the metric
claimThe semantics of a formal system rich enough to contain elementary mathematics cannot be fully defined in terms of mathematical functions within that same system.