Abstract
Physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) is one of the great natural scientists who have given shape to how the world will view itself beyond the twentieth century. He succeeded in establishing the point of departure of today’s quantum mechanics and made specific contributions to the effective description of atoms and molecules. His indeterminacy relations provided the key to the physical-epistemological interpretation of this new theory. Finally, he did decisive pioneer work in the expansion and coordination of quantum and relativity theory. Above all, he confronted problems of the innermost structure of matter. He was engaged, in other words, in what we today call nuclear and elementary particle physics.
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Notes
- 1.
In a letter of 11 February, 1924, by Pauli to Bohr. The citations of letters by Pauli are taken from [1].
- 2.
- 3.
Heisenberg [4], reprinted in GS/CW, CIV, p. 239.
- 4.
See note 1 above; vol. 2, p. 214.
- 5.
Heisenberg [5], reprinted in GS/CW, vol. CIV, p. 240.
- 6.
Pauli [6]. See esp. p. 93.
- 7.
It appeared first in Dialectica, vol. 2 (1948); reprinted in GS/CW CI, pp. 335–340.
- 8.
Heisenberg [7]; reprinted in GS/CW CIV, pp. 113–115.
- 9.
See note 8; p. 113. Pauli referred in particular to Jung’s archetypes and occasionally used the symbolism of the alchemists.
- 10.
GS/CW CI, pp. 22–2.
- 11.
Heisenberg [8]; reprinted in GS/CW CI, pp. 29–39.
- 12.
Cf. Heisenberg’s address during the gathering of natural scientists in Hannover [9], reprinted in GS/CW CI, pp. 96–101.
- 13.
Cf. Heisenberg’s essay Die Bewertung der ‘modernen theoretischen Physik’ of 1940, published in the Zeitschrift für die gesamte Naturwissenschaft, vol. 9 (1943), pp. 202–212.
- 14.
Die Goethe’sche und die Newton’sche Farbenlehre im Lichte der modernen Physik. Geist der Zeit. Wesen und Gestalt der Völker (Hochschule im Ausland) New Series, vol. 19 (1941), reprinted in GS/CW CI, pp. 146–160.
- 15.
The precise dating of Heisenberg’s lecture on Goethe’s theory of color could not be established at the Leipzig Academy. But the 1935 dating is supported to some extent by Heisenberg’s review of Planck’s publication noted in note 5 above. There Heisenberg makes explicit reference Goethe and Newton as investigators of nature with opposite approaches. In Planck’s essay the comparison of the two men is of minor significance.
- 16.
The addresses named are republished in GS/CW CI, pp. 161–192, 193–201, 202–206, 207–215 resp.
- 17.
Vol. 30 (1942), pp. 133–143. Heisenberg also cites Lorenz’ idea in his Zurich lecture of October 1942; cf. note 16.
- 18.
“After 1942 the times became so turbulent and difficult that there was neither time nor energy for that kind of ‘extra venture.’” (E. Heisenberg to H. Rechenberg, 12 April, 1984.).
- 19.
Cf. note 14, p. 265.
- 20.
Ibid., p. 267.
- 21.
“Hence, classical physics may be defined other than by its individual areas by the fact that we may completely leave aside the method of understanding [that is, the method of observation] that instructs us about reality.” (See below, –).
- 22.
Cf. for example the essay on “closed theories” named in note 7, or his Gifford Lectures Physik und Philosophie.
- 23.
One of the type-written copies was most likely written later, incorporating corrections most of which had been written into the hand-written original.
References
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Rechenberg, H. (2019). Introduction. In: Kleinknecht, K. (eds) Reality and Its Order. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25696-8_1
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