Why Richard Feynman (the Superstar Physicist) Hated Philosophy and Philosophers

Richard Feynman called philosophy “low-level baloney” and philosophers “pompous fools” who make “stupid remarks”. He also said that “cocktail-party philosophers never really understand the subtleties and depths” of the problems they tackle.

“What the hell have physicists done for music lately?”

— Philosopher-with-a-doctorate-in-physics, David Z. Albert

The well-known American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman (1918–1988) didn’t like philosophy. He particularly didn’t like philosophers. Indeed Feynman is so renowned for his dislike of philosophy and philosophers that the UK’s very own physicist and media personality Brian Cox couldn’t stop himself from mentioning Feynman’s very-often-quoted remark that

“the philosophy of science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds”.

Ironically enough, Brian Cox also once tweeted a comment (see here) about a Feynman quote which had previously been taken to mean (at least on Twitter) that scientists should “stick to science” — i.e., rather than discuss ethics, Donald Trump/Joe Biden, Brexit, the Ukraine, Jeremy Corbyn, films, fate, peace, social justice, the Internet…