One’s initial impression reading The Physicists, especially before the reader is made aware of the true identities of the three inmates, could be that these venerable men (Möbius in particular) are no longer capable of pursuing scientific research due to their falling victim to religious delusion, or some other form of irrationalism that hinders their creative abilities. But it is revealed at the end of the play that all of the men are sound of mind, in fact, Möbius is so brilliant a physicist that the other two men want to use him for their own purposes. Newton is representative of a science that distances itself from politics; it sees itself as above the trifles and banalities that constitute the average everyday existence of humankind. Einstein’s is a science that is beholden to the politics of the nation-state; the scientist is impotent and can only “hope that the party will follow [his] recommendations, nothing more” (Dürrenmatt, 79). There is, however, no real difference between these two positions as Möbius notes, “[e]ach of you is trying to palm off a different theory, yet the reality you offer me is the same in both cases: a prison” (Dürrenmatt, 80). And what is this thing that both elevates and at the same time debases humankind? For Möbius, it is something monstrous and traumatizing, hence the eschatological themes that pervade the play. This is also why Möbius’ faked delusions are religious in nature: it is only in the mythology of religion that Möbius finds adequate concepts and images to help “make sense” of the formidable meaninglessness of scientific inquiry. Mobius’ “Song of Solomon” makes it clear that there is no “end-goal” to scientific inquiry (“Toward a few white stars/That we never reach anyhow) and how it is a process that is ridden with errors (“We had long since mistaken the sun for Sirius”) (Dürrenmatt, 44).

Prophethood is not an honored vocation. One is dismissed, ridiculed, and met with the most extreme violence for the truths that one tells to a people who do not want to hear it, or are threatened by it. This might have been the case for the prophets of old, a modern- day prophet is harmless; he is similar to a court jester. He need not be exiled, he can be sent to an asylum to be cured of his pathology. But if Möbius is a “prophet” (or a madman— it makes no difference) it is not because he is divinely inspired (he does not actually see King Solomon) but rather because he directly confronts and acknowledges this disorienting meaninglessness that is at the core of scientific inquiry.