Heisenberg in the Atomic Age
Science and the Public Sphere

Heisenberg in the Atomic Age explores the transformations of science's public presence in the postwar Federal Republic of Germany.

Cathryn Carson (Author)

9780521821704, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 January 2010

558 pages, 10 b/w illus.
24.2 x 16.5 x 4 cm, 0.92 kg

'Carson succeeds magnificently in interrelating the scientific persona of the most famous physicist in post-war Germany with his role in the process of reshaping German science and society for a democratic political order. Heisenberg is a landmark study in how scientists can and should participate in building the Habermasian public sphere of rational discussion and critical reflection.' Norton Wise, University of California, Los Angeles

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.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Science and the public sphere
2. Tracking Heisenberg
Part II. Culture: 3. The scientist as bildungsburger
4. Physics as philosophy
5. The culture of the vent
6. Bildung als konsumgut: dilemmas of the literary public sphere
Part III. Politics: 7. Science, politics, and power: initial orientations
8. A new research system
9. Science policy in the atomic age
10. Expansion and uncertainty
11. Politics in the public sphere
12. Speaking of the Third Reich: denazification
13. Speaking of the Third Reich: war work
14. Speaking of the Third Reich: into the public sphere
Part IV. Scientific Reason in the Public Sphere: 15. The public reach of reason after 1945
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]