Recasting Reality

This volume explores Wolfgang Pauli's visionary ideas with respect to several topics in science and philosophy that are of contemporary interest. It provides material and suggests directions for future studies of a variety of deep-seated and open problems.

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.

Explores the borderlands between mind and the physical world Contains new ideas about the role of consciousness Perennial ideas in philosophy revisited with the help of an "Old Master" Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Texte du rabat

Wolfgang Pauli was not only one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century: His huge correspondence and unpublished manuscripts also demonstrate his deep interest in questions beyond physics.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 if 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.

Contenu
Wolfgang Pauli's Philosophical Ideas Viewed from the Perspective of His Correspondence.- Concepts of Symmetry in the Work of Wolfgang Pauli.- A New Idea of Reality: Pauli on the Unity of Mind and Matter.- Extending the Philosophical Significance of the Idea of Complementarity.- Psychophysical Nature.- Complementarity in Bistable Perception.- Process Ontology from Whitehead to Quantum Physics.- Complementarity of Mind and Matter.- A Proposed Relation Between Intensity of Presence and Duration of Nowness.- Synchronicity, Quantum Mechanics, and Psyche.- When Pauli Met Jung the Path from Three to Four.- What Is Mathematics? Pauli, Jung,and Contemporary Cognitive Science.- Psychological Research on Insight Problem Solving.- Exploring Pauli's (Quantum) Views on Science and Biology.