This article discusses Werner Heisenberg's use of ancient Greek philosophy in the debates about quantum theory that occurred during the first half of the 20th century. For Heisenberg, science was determined by two concurrent streams of thought that arose in ancient Greece: materialism and idealism. Starting from this separation, Heisenberg not only develops his criticism of the opponents of the Copenhagen interpretation, but also philosophically justifies his own theses regarding quantum mechanics. Although his philosophical conceptions are not themselves open to complete systematization, the relation that Heisenberg established between Greek philosophy and the problems of quantum theory finally resulted in an interpretation of physical reality, which is deeply marked by a kind of Platonism and an incipient mathematical structuralism.
Quantum mechanics; Quantum theory; Werner Heisenberg; Copenhagen interpretation; Platonic philosophy; Idealism; Materialism