Who am I?
I’m Tim: a physicist and philosopher.
My passion lies where science meets philosophy. And my scientific goal is to make philosophy more useful for physics again.
In short, I am most passionate about philosophy for physics.
What do I do?
After studying physics and getting my PhD in Karlsruhe, I’ve worked as a physics postdoc in Utrecht. While continuing some physics projects, I am now back in Karlsruhe but working in philosophy as my main job.
On the side, I am self-employed and offer private tutoring and coaching; mainly for physicists but also for philosophers who want to learn about physics.
How did I get here?
While I didn’t like school too much, as I found most of it boring, I quickly became passionate about physics after starting to study it in Karlsruhe.
Despite having good grades, I often felt that I didn’t fully understand physics on a fundamental level. At first, I tried to dive deeper into mathematics to better understand the formalism used in physical theories. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. As I now know, it also could not have helped.
Accidentally, I discovered some books that approached physics from a philosophically informed perspective. Suddenly things startet to make more sense. The problem in my understanding wasn’t in the mathematics; it was about understanding the relation between the abstract formal theories of mathematics and the concrete physical systems in experiments. This relation between formalism and reality was taught neither in mathematics nor in physics. The reason is simple: discussing this relation is neither part of mathematics nor is it part of physics; it’s part of philosophy.
Thus, together with some of my fellow students, I started an informal discussion group on philosophy of physics. We also started to regularly attend philosophy of physics seminars. And bit by bit, as our philosophical knowledge grew, our understanding of physics improved on a fundamental level. Experiencing how it can help to gain a deeper understanding of physics, I also became passionate about philosophy.
Nevertheless, before being able to valuably philosophize about physics, I needed to become a proper physicist first. Thus, I finished my PhD in physics in Karlsruhe and afterwards worked as a physics postdoc for several years in Utrecht. Towards the end of my postdoc position in Utrecht, I felt ready to delve deeper into philosophy of physics or, as I prefer, philosophy for physics.
In philosophy for physics, we analyze physics and its methods from a philosophical perspective; the goal is to make philosophy more useful for physics again. A philosophical analysis can, for example, clarify a physical concept or deepen our understanding of a physical theory, which can help students with learning, lecturers with teaching, and researchers with communicating.
With that in mind, I planned to become self-employed—offering private tutoring and coaching as well as online courses. Yet, I also got an offer for a postdoc position in philosophy back in Karlsruhe. Taking that amazing opportunity to improve my skills in philosophy, I am currently a philosopher as my main job; the self-employment, for now, will be carried out only as a second job.
So, here I am: passionate about physics, philosophy, and especially philosophy for physics; with research experience in physics, a research position in philosophy, and a philosophy-for-physics coaching business on the side.