From the Problem of Space to the Epistemology of Science: Hermann Weyl's Reflection on the Dimensionality of the World

In analyzing the problem of space from 1917 to 1923, Hermann Weyl confronted with the philosophical underpinnings of the theories of space. Weyl endorsed the distinction between the question of the essence of space and the question of its objective representation, a distinction that many philosophers, such as Ernst Cassirer, inherited from Immanuel Kant’s philosophy. However, Weyl aimed to offer a reliable alternative to Kant’s transcendental idealism of space and time, by means of mathematics and symbolic construction. The consequences of this move will be analyzed in Weyl’s reflection on the epistemology of science after the 1920s and in his late works, with emphasis on his “Why is the World Four-Dimensional?” (1955): a signature of the fact that the problem of space had open questions that engaged the mathematical physicist throughout his entire life.