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Thomas Aquinas once gave theologists the sound advice not to expatiate on questions of physics that they did not understand enough about. In so doing he certainly had people like me in mind, the only difference being that, unlike the doyens of High Scholasticism that he was castigating, I cannot even begin to flatter myself that I understand anything about physics at all It seems fair to assume that physicists find it as strenuous and outlandish to listen to illiterates in their own field as "professional" philosophers do to relate to the oral traditions of African tribes, Muslim Sufis or Indian pandits, who have never heard so much of many of the things that we believe to know. And just like a bushman, a Sufi or a pandit I feel gratified, somewhat surprised and of course flattered that you have chosen to listen to what I have to say and have invited a philosophical wanderer between the cultures and the worlds to address you. For reasons of complementarity perhaps? To gain some awareness of the common trust of what looks like a radically different way of experiencing a particular problem, thinking about it, understanding and interpreting it?

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-2779-0_2

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