Abstract
What kind of people were the pioneers of quantum theory ? Did they devote themselves exclusively to the scientific method and rational thought? Were they as unworldly as Sheldon Cooper in the TV series Big Bang Theory? Quite the opposite! From many sources we know that their intense work on quantum theory forced them to carry out an exhaustive examination of their conceptual worldview, including questions of faith.
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Notes
- 1.
Translated from M. Planck: “Physikalische Gesetzlichkeit im Lichte neuerer Forschung” (1926), in Vorträge und Erinnerungen, Stuttgart 1949, p. 205.
- 2.
Translated form M. Planck, “Religion und Naturwissenschaft” (1937), in: Vorträge und Erinnerungen, Stuttgart 1949, p. 331; http://psychomedizin.com/medien/pdf/max-planck.pdf.
- 3.
Letter from Einstein to Max Born, December 4 1926.
- 4.
Published under the title “Einstein believes in Spinoza’s God”, in New York Times 25. April 1929; W. Isaacson, Einstein: His Life and Universe, New York (2008), p. 388.
- 5.
Cited after B. Hoffmann, H. Dukas, Albert Einstein. The Human Side, Princeton, New Jersey (1981), S. 43.
- 6.
A. Einstein: The World as I see It, Citadel Press, New York (2008); original title: Mein Weltbild (1931).
- 7.
This is a modification of a formulation of Kant: “Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind” (or “concepts without intuitions are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind)”, I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, B75, A48.
- 8.
Speech on quantum theory in October 1937 on the occasion of the commemoration of the 200th birthday of Luigi Galvani (Celebrazione del Secondo Centenario della Nascita di Luigi Galvani) in Bologna, Italy. See also Niels Bohr, Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, edited by John Wiley and Sons, New York (1958), pp. 19/20.
- 9.
In the 1980s and 1990s, von Weizsäcker met several times with Tendzin Gyatsho, the 14th Dalai Lama. In their exchange of ideas, they recognized clear parallels between quantum physics and Buddhist teachings (see Chap. 17).
- 10.
N. Bohr, Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, Chapman & Hall, New York (1958), p. 82.
- 11.
Public address at the 1955 Autumn Meeting of the National Academy of Science, The Value of Science, held at the CalTech Campus Nov 2, 1955; in R. Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out—The Best Short Works by R.P. Feynman, New York (1999).
- 12.
Interview with R. Feynman, published in Superstrings: A Theory of Everything? edited by Paul C. W. Davies und Julian R. Brown, Cambridge University Press (1988), p. 208.
- 13.
G. Lemaître, The Beginning of the World from the Point of View of Quantum Theory, Nature, 127, 706 (9 May 1931). A fist version of this work was already published in French in 1927.
- 14.
Letter to Eduard Büsching (Oct 29, 1929), after Büsching sent Einstein a copy of his book; here cited from M. Jammer, Einstein and Religion: physics and theology, Princeton: Princeton University Press (2002), p. 51.
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Jaeger, L. (2018). Quantum Physics and Faith: Explaining the Inexplicable. In: The Second Quantum Revolution. Copernicus, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98824-5_20
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