Dietmar Odilo Paul
Dietmar Odilo Paul | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Philosophical critique of natural laws as human constructs |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Philosophy of science |
Dietmar Odilo Paul is a German author and philosophical writer known for his critical writings on the philosophy of science, in which he argues that the laws of nature are human artifacts rather than features of nature itself. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Ideas
Paul maintains a personal website of philosophical writings (Philosophische Schriften) and has published a book, Wie Wahrheit wandelt ("How Truth Wanders"). He argues that so-called natural laws do not reside in nature but are exclusively products of human thought that could have been conceived otherwise; in his view nature "knows no numbers" and has no inherent concept of measurement, time, or length. He further maintains that absolute truth in a philosophical or theological sense does not exist. Among his writings is a piece on the propagation speed of light (Zur Ausbreitungsgeschwindigkeit des Lichts) that questions aspects of Einstein's relativity from a philosophical standpoint. These positions lie outside the scientific mainstream.