Beyond the Atom: The Philosophical Thought of Wolfgang Pauli

ISBN-13: 9783540194569 / Angielski / Miękka / 1988 / 234 str.

Kalervo V. Laurikainen

Opis

The Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was often called the conscience of physics. He was famous for his sharp and critical mind which made him a central figure among the founders of quantum physics. He also was an outstanding philosopher, especially interested in finding a new conception of reality and of causality. A careful study of the original sources of the past culminated in his study of Kepler and of medieval symbolism, a concept that played a central role in his discussion with Carl Jung on what they called the psycho-physical problem. Pauli considered the sharp distinctions between knowledge and faith and between spirit and matter as dangerous. He thought they should complement each other in our comprehension of reality. Professor Laurikainen here for the first time describes Pauli's ideas in detail. His book is based on the large and as yet unpublished correspondence between Pauli and M. Fierz. Its careful analysis adds depth and clarity to the few publications by Pauli on philosophical problems and explains why Pauli grasped the meaning of atomic theory more deeply than even Niels Bohr himself. The book should interest both philosophers and physicists and should encourage further studies on Pauli the humanist and his contribution to our understanding of reality.

Spis treści

I Introduction.- Biographical Information.- II Positivism and Realism.- Pauli’s Positivism.- Pauli’s Realism.- III The Reality of Opposites.- Seekers of Another Way.- Absolute Causality and Freedom.- IV The Metaphysical Roots of Science.- The Birth of a Mathematical Natural Science.- A New Concept of Causality.- V Spirit and Matter.- The Twilight of Parallelism.- Statistical Causality.- The Idea of a Detached Observer.- In Conclusion.- VI The Limits of Knowledge.- Uncertainty.- Pauli’s Attitude.- Archetypes.- Sychronicity.- VII Mysticism.- Another Way.- Explanatory Comments.- Die Wissenschaft und das abendländische Denken (1955).- VIII The Problem of Evil.- Irrationality and Evil.- Excerpts from Pauli’s Letter to Fierz of Oct. 11, 1953.- Henry More: The Dream of Bathynous.- The Darker Side of God.- A Certain Dream.- IX Quaternity.- The Number Four and Reality.- The Problem of “The Fourth”.- Where Leads the Road?.- The Quarternarian Concept of Reality.- X Transcendental Reality.- Synchronicity.- Observer and Observed.- The Veiled Reality.- The Irrational Dimensions of Reality.- Appendices.