Hans Primas - Böcker

This is a unique volume by a unique scientist, which combines conceptual, formal, and engineering approaches in a way that is rarely seen. Its core is the relation between ways of learning and knowing on the one hand and different modes of time on the other. Partial Boolean logic and the associated notion of complementarity are used to express this relation, and mathematical tools of fundamental physics are used to formalize it. Along the way many central philosophical problems are touched and addressed, above all the mind-body problem. Completed only shortly before the death of the author, the text has been edited and annotated by the author's close collaborator Harald Atmanspacher.

This is a unique volume by a unique scientist, which combines conceptual, formal, and engineering approaches in a way that is rarely seen. Along the way many central philosophical problems are touched and addressed, above all the mind-body problem.

Die Quantentheorie ist eine der grossen kulturellen Leistungen unseres Jahrhunderts und Teil der allgemeinen Bildung für all jene, die über die mathe­ matischen Voraussetzungen zu ihrem Verständnis verfügen. Die eindrücklichen Er­ folge der molekularen Quantenmechanik und ihr immenser praktischer Wert lassen es vor allem für den experimentell arbeitenden Naturwissenschaftler wünschens­ wert erscheinen, die Grundlagen der Quantenchemie auch in den Einzelheiten tie­ fer zu verstehen. Die vorliegende Darstellung geht bewusst neue Wege und versucht, durch eine zeitgerechte Einführung in die molekulare Quantenmechanik zu eigenem Weiter­ denken anzuregen. Dass sich die Quantentheorie in den letzten 30 Jahren wesent­ lich weiterentwickelt hat und dass wir heute manches besser verstehen können, als es den Pionieren der Quantenmechanik möglich war, sollte sich nach unserer Meinung endlich auch in den Lehrbüchern niederschlagen. Nach Darstellungsart, Aufbau und Stoffauswahl richtet sich diese Einfüh­ rung in erster Linie an Studierende der Chemie und anderer Naturwissenschaften. Das Buch entspringt einer einsernestrigen Einführungsvorlesung von vier Wochen­ stunden, welche seit etwa 15 Jahren an der ETH Zürich für Chemiker im dritten Studiensemester gelesen wurde. Die molekulare Quantenmechanik ist heute ein sehr umfangreiches Gebiet, welches sich in einem Buch dieses Umfangs nicht darlegen lässt. Aus diesem Grunde war eine Beschränkung auf die chemisch wichtigen Grund­ lagen geboten, auf denen dann die Theorie der chemischen Bindung, die Molekül­ spektroskopie und die statistische Thermodynamik entwickelt werden können.

Wolfgang Pauli was not only one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century: His huge correspondence and unpublished manuscripts also demonstrate his deep interest in questions beyond physics. This volume explores the relevance of Pauli's visionary ideas with respect to several topics in science and philosophy that are of great contemporary interest: the role of symmetries in theoretical science; dual-aspect approaches to the mind-brain problem; the tension between psychological and physical time; the nature of creative activity and the origin of mathematical insight; and adaptive mutations and epigenetics in biology. Today we are in a position to appreciate how relevant Pauli's work and speculations have turned out to be. This book, authored by a team of internationally renowned experts, provides material and suggests directions for future studies of a variety of deep-seated and open problems, in particular concerning the relation between mind and matter.

1 2 Harald Atmanspacher and Hans Primas 1 Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology, Freiburg, Germany,haa@igpp.de 2 ETH Zurich, Switzerland,primas@phys.chem.ethz.ch Thenotionofrealityisofsupremesigni?canceforourunderstandingofnature, the world around us, and ourselves. As the history of philosophy shows, it has been under permanent discussion at all times. Traditional discourse about - ality covers the full range from basic metaphysical foundations to operational approaches concerning human kinds of gathering and utilizing knowledge, broadly speaking epistemic approaches. However, no period in time has ex- rienced a number of moves changing and, particularly, restraining traditional concepts of reality that is comparable to the 20th century. Early in the 20th century, quite an in?uential move of such a kind was due to the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, laid out essentially by Bohr, Heisenberg, and Pauli in the mid 1920s. Bohr’s dictum, quoted by Petersen (1963, p.12), was that “it is wrong to think that the task of physics is to ?nd out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature.” Although this standpoint was not left unopposed – Einstein, Schr¨ odinger, and others were convinced that it is the task of science to ?nd out about nature itself – epistemic, operational attitudes have set the fashion for many discussions in the philosophy of physics (and of science in general) until today.