physics

World riddle

World riddle is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand World riddle rather than just read about it. In short: World riddle (Welträtsel in German) is a philosophical term concerning fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and the meaning of life. The term gained prominence in the late 19th century and is most closely associated with two key figures: the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the biologist Ernst Haeckel.

Key takeaways

World riddle belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect World riddle to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of World riddle from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

World riddle (Welträtsel in German) is a philosophical term concerning fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and the meaning of life. The term gained prominence in the late 19th century and is most closely associated with two key figures: the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the biologist Ernst Haeckel. Nietzsche mentioned Welträthsel in several of his writings, exploring profound existential questions. However, it was Haeckel who popularized the term with his influential book, Die Welträthsel (1895–1899), later published in English as The Riddle of the Universe (1901). In this work, Haeckel attempted to resolve these riddles using a scientific and monistic worldview. The World Riddle has also been explored as an inspiration or allegorical theme in some musical compositions, notably the unresolved harmonic progression at the end of Richard Strauss's 1896 tone poem, Also sprach Zarathustra.

View of Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche referred to the "World Riddle" (Welträthsel) in several of his writings.

Emil du Bois-Reymond Emil du Bois-Reymond used the term "World Riddle" in 1880 for seven great questions of science, such as the ultimate nature of matter and the origin of simple sensations. In a lecture to the Berlin Academy of Sciences he declared that neither science nor philosophy could ever explain these riddles.

View of Haeckel Ernst Haeckel viewed the World Riddle as a dual-question of the form, "What is the nature of the physical universe and what is the nature of human thinking?" which he explained, in a lecture in 1892, would have a single answer since humans and the universe were contained within one system, a mono-system:[1]

The "exacting" Berlin physiologist [du Bois-Reymond] shut this knowledge out from his mind, and with a short-sightedness almost inconceivable statement, placed this special neurological question alongside of the one great "world-riddle", the fundamental question of substance, the general question of the connection between matter and energy. As I long ago pointed out, these two great questions are not two separate "world-riddles". The neurological problem of consciousness is only a special case of the all-comprehending cosmological problem, the question of substance. "If we understood the nature of matter and energy, we should also understand how the substance underlying them can under certain conditions feel, desire, and think." Consciousness, like feeling and willing, among the higher animals is a mechanical work of the ganglion-cells, and as such must be carried back to chemical and physical events in the plasma of these. Haeckel had written that human behavior and feeling could be explained, within the laws of the physical universe, as "mechanical work of the ganglion-cells" as stated.

View of William James The philosopher and psychologist William James has questioned the attitude of thinking that a single answer applies to everything or everyone. In his book Pragmatism (1907) he satirized the world-riddle as follows:

All the great single-word answers to the world's riddle, such as God, the One, Reason, Law, Spirit, Matter, Nature, Polarity, the Dialectic Process, the Idea, the Self, the Oversoul, draw the admiration that men have lavished on them from this oracular role. By amateurs in philosophy and professionals alike, the universe is represented as a queer sort of petrified sphinx whose appeal to man consists in a monotonous challenge to his divining powers. THE Truth: what a perfect idol of the rationalistic mind!

See also Epistemology - study of the nature of knowledge. Existentialism - philosophy of being/existence. Weltschmerz

Notes

References Ernst Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe (Die Welträthsel or Die Weltraetsel, 1895–1899), Publisher: Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York, 1992, reprint edition, paperback, 405 pages, illustrated, ISBN 0-87975-746-9. Ernst Haeckel, Monism as Connecting Religion and Science ("translated from German by J. Gilchrist, M.A., B.Sc., PH.D."), Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, Gutenberg.org webpage: GutenbergOrg-7mono10 (for free download).

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with World riddle

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what World riddle claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to World riddle before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about World riddle ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of World riddle

In research: World riddle appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses World riddle in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: World riddle is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Existentialist concepts, Metaphysics of mind, Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for World riddle outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study World riddle in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what World riddle means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain World riddle out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is World riddle in simple terms?

Why does World riddle matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study World riddle?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on World riddle.