Critical Examination of the Conceptual Foundations of Classical Mechanics in the Light of Quantum Physics

It is well known that classical mechanics consists of several basic features like determinism, reductionism, completeness of knowledge and mechanism. In this article the basic assumptions which underlie those features are discussed. It is shown that these basic assumptions - though universally assumed up to the beginning of the 20th century - are far from obvious. Finally it is shown that - to a certain extent - there is nothing wrong in assuming these basic postulates. Rather, the error lies in the epistemological absolutization of the theory, which was considered as a mirroring of Nature.