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Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More Information Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information Heisenberg in the Atomic Age 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 Werner Heisenberg’s philosophical commentaries, circulated 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, inthewakeoftheThirdReich. Cathryn Carson is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is coeditor, with David A. Hollinger, of Reappraising Oppenheimer: Centennial Studies and Reflections and chair of the editorial board of Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information publications of the german historical institute Washington, D.C. Edited by Hartmut Berghoff with the assistance of David Lazar The German Historical Institute is a center for advanced study and research whose purpose is to provide a permanent basis for scholarly cooperation among historians from the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States. The Institute conducts, promotes, and supports research into both American and German political, social, economic, and cultural history; into transatlantic migration, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and into the history of international relations, with special emphasis on the roles played by the United States and Germany. Recent books in the series Matthias Schulz and Thomas A. Schwartz, editors, The Strained Alliance: U.S.-European Relations from Nixon to Carter Michaela Hoenicke Moore, Know Your Enemy: The American Debate on Nazism, 1933–1945 Suzanne L. Marchand, German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race, and Scholarship Manfred Berg and Bernd Schaefer, editors, Historical Justice in International Perspective: How Societies are Trying to Right the Wrongs of the Past Carole Fink and Bernd Schaefer, editors, Ostpolitik, 1969–1974: European and Global Responses Nathan Stoltzfus and Henry Friedlander, editors, Nazi Crimes and the Law Joachim Radkau, Nature and Power Andreas W. Daum, Kennedy in Berlin Jonathan R. Zatlin, The Currency of Socialism: Money and Political Culture in East Germany Peter Becker and Richard F. Wetzell, editors, Criminals and Their Scientists: The History of Criminology in International Perspective © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information Heisenberg in the Atomic Age Science and the Public Sphere CATHRYN CARSON University of California, Berkeley german historical institute Washington, D.C. and © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York ny 10013-2473, usa Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107436954 © Cathryn Carson 2010 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2010 First paperback edition 2014 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Carson, Cathryn. Heisenberg in the atomic age : science and the public sphere / Cathryn Carson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-82170-4 (hardback) 1. Heisenberg, Werner, 1901–1976 – Philosophy. 2. Physics – Philosophy. 3. Science – Philosophy. 4. Heisenberg, Werner, 1901–1976 – Political and social views. 5. Science and state – Germany (West) I. Title. qc16.h45c37 2009 530.092–dc22 2009009616 [b] isbn 978-0-521-82170-4 Hardback isbn 978-1-107-43695-4 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information Contents Acknowledgments page xi Archival Abbreviations xiii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Science and the Public Sphere 3 Strategy and Approach 7 Outline 11 2. Tracking Heisenberg 19 PART II: CULTURE 3. The Scientist as Bildungsburger¨ 31 Bildung and Science 33 Performing Bildung: Theory 37 Performing Bildung: Praxis 39 Enter Heisenberg 42 First Lectures 44 Transformations in the Foundations 48 Accommodating Culture to Politics 51 Public and Private 54 World Pictures and Public Roles 58 4. Physics as Philosophy 60 Early Work: Fabricating Quantum Mechanics 63 Making Sense of a Theory 70 The Hidden Meaning of Quantum Field Theory 75 The Philosophy of the Fundamental Length 79 Revisiting Helgoland 81 A Theory of Science 83 Quantum Theory after 1945 91 The Philosophy of the Future Theory 92 Philosophy and Science in a World-Historical Moment 97 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information viii Contents 5. The Culture of the Event 102 Mechanics: Securing the Speaker 103 Performance: Science and Bildung (1949) 106 Mechanics: Staging 108 Performance: World Pictures on Display (1953) 109 Mechanics: Amplification 113 Performance: World Formulae (1958) 115 Mechanics: Defining a Frame 121 Performance: Goethe (1967) 122 Mechanics: Multiple Meanings 126 Performance: Religion and Science (1973) 127 Science as Bildung: Cultural Constancy 133 6. Bildung als Konsumgut: Dilemmas of the Literary Public Sphere 136 Publishing: Brave New World 137 The Media Complex: Stars and Spectacles 141 The Memoirs 145 Countercultural Resonances 155 Science in the Public Sphere 156 PART III: POLITICS 7. Science, Politics, and Power: Initial Orientations 161 The Research System 162 The Scientist 165 Heisenberg on the Spot 171 The Atomic Age 173 8. A New Research System 177 Postwar Boundary Conditions 178 Inside the Institute 183 The Max Planck Society 187 National Science Policy 192 International Relations 206 The Postwar Settlement 215 9. Science Policy in the Atomic Age 218 Boosting Atomic Physics 220 Starting on a Reactor 223 Industry, the State, and the Max Planck Society 227 Uncooperative Partners and the Problem of a Site 232 Decisions, Mechanisms, and Consequences 237 Roles, Responsibilities, and Political Concerns 243 Science Policy in the Small 249 Atomic Physics and Political Order 252 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Excerpt Index Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-43695-4 - Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere Cathryn Carson Frontmatter More information Contents ix 10. Expansion and Uncertainty 256 Not an Institute Director in the German Sense 256 Structural Transformation: The Max Planck Society 260 The MPG and Its Funders 266 Hopes for Reform 272 Supporting Science: Budget Growth and Budget Cuts 277 Public Relations 281 Planning: Accelerator Physics 284 Projecting a Future: Conflict and Avoidance 287 The End of Physics? 293 Out of Heisenberg’s Era 301 Governance: Some Conclusions 304 Science Policy and the Postwar Order 308 11. Politics in the Public Sphere 310 Postwar Beginnings 311 Gottingen:¨ Small Public 313 The Nuclear Threat 317 The Gottingen¨ Manifesto 320 Looking beyond
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