Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere

by Cathryn Carson

• ISBN13: 9780521821704
• ISBN10: 0521821703
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The end of the Second World War opened a new era for science in public life. Heisenberg in the Atomic Age explores the transformations of science's public presence in the postwar Federal Republic of Germany. It shows how Heisenberg's philosophical commentaries, circulating in the mass media, secured his role as science's public philosopher, and it reflects on his policy engagements and public political stands, which helped redefine the relationship between science and the state. With deep archival grounding, the book tracks Heisenberg's interactions with intellectuals from Heidegger to Habermas and political leaders from Adenauer to Brandt. It also traces his evolving statements about his wartime research on nuclear fission for the National Socialist regime. Working between the history of science and German history, the book's central theme is the place of scientific rationality in public life - after the atomic bomb, in the wake of the Third Reich.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Archival Abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction
Science and the Public Sphere	p. 3
Strategy and Approach	p. 7
Outline	p. 11
Tracking Heisenberg	p. 19
Culture
The Scientist as Bildungsbürger	p. 31
Bildung and Science	p. 33
Performing Bildung: Theory	p. 37
Performing Bildung: Praxis	p. 35
Enter Heisenberg	p. 42
First Lectures	p. 44
Transformations in the Foundations	p. 48
Accommodating Culture to Politics	p. 51
Public and Private	p. 54
World Pictures and Public Roles	p. 58
Physics as Philosophy	p. 60
Early Work: Fabricating Quantum Mechanics	p. 63
Making Sense of a Theory	p. 70
The Hidden Meaning of Quantum Field Theory	p. 75
The Philosophy of the Fundamental Length	p. 79
Revisiting Helgoland	p. 81
A Theory of Science	p. 83
Quantum Theory after 1945	p. 91
The Philosophy of the Future Theory	p. 92
Philosophy and Science in a World-Historical Moment	p. 97
The Culture of the Event	p. 102
Mechanics: Securing the Speaker	p. 103
Performance; Science and Bildung (1949)	p. 106
Mechanics: Staging	p. 108
Performance: World Pictures on Display (1953)	p. 109
Mechanics: Amplification	p. 113
Performance: World Formulae (1958)	p. 115
Mechanics: Defining a Frame	p. 121
Performance: Goethe (1967)	p. 122
Mechanics: Multiple Meanings	p. 126
Performance: Religion and Science (1973)	p. 127
Science as Bildung: Cultural Constancy	p. 133
Bildung ah Konsumgut: Dilemmas of the Literary Public Sphere	p. 136
Publishing: Brave New World	p. 137
The Media Complex: Stars and Spectacles	p. 141
The Memoirs	p. 145
Countercultural Resonances	p. 155
Science in the Public Sphere	p. 156
Politics
Science, Politics, and Power: Initial Orientations	p. 161
The Research System	p. 162
The Scientist	p. 165
Heisenberg on the Spot	p. 171
The Atomic Age	p. 173
A New Research System	p. 177
Postwar Boundary Conditions	p. 178
Inside the Institute	p. 183
The Max Planck Society	p. 187
National Science Policy	p. 192
International Relations	p. 206
The Postwar Settlement	p. 215
Science Policy in the Atomic Age	p. 218
Boosting Atomic Physics	p. 220
Starting on a Reactor	p. 223
Industry, the State, and the Max Planck Society	p. 227
Uncooperative Partners and the Problem of a Site	p. 232
Decisions, Mechanisms, and Consequences	p. 237
Roles, Responsibilities, and Political Concerns	p. 243
Science Policy in the Small	p. 249
Atomic Physics and Political Order	p. 252
Expansion and Uncertainty	p. 256
Not an Institute Director in the German Sense	p. 256
Structural Transformation: The Max Planck Society	p. 260
The MPG and Its Flinders	p. 266
Hopes for Reform	p. 272
Supporting Science: Budget Growth and Budget Cuts	p. 277
Public Relations	p. 281
Planning: Accelerator Physics	p. 284
Projecting a Future: Conflict and Avoidance	p. 287
The End of Physics?	p. 293
Out of Heisenberg's Era	p. 301
Governance: Some Conclusions	p. 304
Science Policy and the Postwar Order	p. 308
Politics in the Public Sphere	p. 310
Postwar Beginnings	p. 311
Göttingen: Small Public	p. 313
The Nuclear Threat	p. 317
The Göttingen Manifesto	p. 320
Looking beyond Adenauer	p. 330
Scientists and Intellectuals	p. 333
To 1968 and Beyond	p. 340
A Scientist in the Public Sphere	p. 344
Speaking of the Third Reich: Denazification	p. 351
Denazification	p. 353
"Aryan Physics"	p. 359
Aside: "Resistance"	p. 362
Reconstructing Public Life	p. 364
Reconstructing Speech	p. 366
Speaking of the Third Reich: War Work	p. 370
Farm Hall: Discussing	p. 371
Farm Hall: Drafting	p. 373
The Naturwissenschaften Report: Narrative	p. 375
The Naturwissenschaften Report: Conclusion	p. 379
Readings at Home	p. 381
Readings Abroad	p. 383
Things Said and Unsaid	p. 389
Talking with Bohr	p. 391
Speaking of the Third Reich: Into the Public Sphere	p. 397
Into the Public Sphere: Jungk	p. 398
Not Talking with Bohr	p. 408
Opening Up	p. 412
War Work in Context? Speaking of the Third Reich	p. 416
Writing the Memoirs	p. 418
Situating the Memoirs	p. 425
The World-Historical Frame	p. 428
Scientific Reason in the Public sphere
The Public Read of Reason after 1945	p. 435
Predicting, Controlling, and Mastering Nature	p. 437
Politics in the Scientific-Technical World	p. 440
Limits t Progress, Limits to reason	p. 444
Science and the Self	p. 452
The Problem of Values	p. 455
Interpreting Scientists and Interpreting science	p. 457
Epilogue	p. 459
Bibliography	p. 463
Index	p. 521
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