Werner Heisenberg 1901 – 1976
Werner Heisenberg (1901 – 1976) was a German philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Continental Philosophy.
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist and one of the principal architects of quantum mechanics. His 1925 paper laid the foundation for matrix mechanics, and in 1927 he formulated the uncertainty principle that bears his name, establishing a fundamental limit on the joint determination of conjugate variables. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932. His Physics and Philosophy and Across the Frontiers situate the discoveries of twentieth-century physics in the wider history of Western thought. His role under the Third Reich and his postwar leadership of West German science remain matters of historical debate.
Werner Karl Heisenberg was born in 1901 in Wurzburg, the son of a professor of Byzantine philology. He studied physics at Munich under Arnold Sommerfeld and Gottingen under Max Born, took his doctorate in 1923, and habilitated at Gottingen the following year. His paper of June 1925, written on the island of Heligoland during a hay-fever cure, launched matrix mechanics; the uncertainty relations followed in 1927.
He held chairs at Leipzig from 1927 and from 1942 directed the Kaiser Wilhelm (later Max Planck) Institute for Physics in Berlin. His role in the German wartime nuclear program, and the meaning of his much-discussed 1941 visit to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, remain the most contested episodes of twentieth-century physics. After the war he led the reconstruction of German science and was a founder of the European laboratory CERN. His philosophical writings include Physics and Philosophy (1958), Physics and Beyond (1969), and Across the Frontiers (1974).
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, his contributions to the Copenhagen interpretation, and his late readings of Plato and the pre-Socratics shaped twentieth-century philosophy of physics and the broader cultural conversation about the nature of reality at the quantum scale. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 and died in Munich in February 1976.
Key facts
- Nationality
- German
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental Philosophy
Selected quotes
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“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning. -
Attributed to Werner Heisenberg:
“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.”
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“An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and how to avoid them.”
Ein Fachmann ist ein Mann, der einige der gröbsten Fehler kennt, die man in dem betreffenden Fach machen kann, und der sie deshalb zu vermeiden versteht. | Der Teil und das Ganze. Gespräche im Umkreis der Atomphysik (1969); also in "Kein Chaos, aus dem nicht wieder Ordnung würde", Die Zeit No. 34 (22 August 1969); as translated in Physics and Beyond : Encounters and Conversation (1971) -
Attributed to Werner Heisenberg:
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”
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Attributed to Werner Heisenberg:
“We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself, but nature subjected to our way of asking questions.”
Werner Heisenberg by topic
Frequently asked about Werner Heisenberg
- When did Werner Heisenberg live?
- Werner Heisenberg was born in 1901 and died in 1976.
- Where was Werner Heisenberg from?
- Werner Heisenberg was a German philosopher of the Contemporary era.
- What philosophical movements is Werner Heisenberg associated with?
- Werner Heisenberg was associated with Continental Philosophy.
- What was Werner Heisenberg known for?
- Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist and one of the principal architects of quantum mechanics.
- How many quotes are attributed to Werner Heisenberg?
- There are 19 attributed quotations from Werner Heisenberg in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.
Quotes that are not actually from Werner Heisenberg
These lines are widely circulated as Werner Heisenberg, but they do not appear in Werner Heisenberg's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Sometimes attributed to Heisenberg, this was actually a statement made by Niels Bohr , as quoted in The Genius of Science: A Portrait Gallery (2000) by Abraham Pais, p. 24 | Some things are so serious that one can only joke about them. Variant without any citation as to author in Denial is not a riv
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“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for her.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Der erste Trunk aus dem Becher der Naturwissenschaft macht atheistisch, aber auf dem Grund des Bechers wartet Gott.” in 15 Jahrhunderte Würzburg: e. Stadt u. ihre Geschichte [ 15 centuries Würzburg. A city and its history ] (1979), p. 205, by Heinz Otremba. Otremba does not declare his source, and t
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“Reality is in the observations, not in the electron.”
A summary of Heisenberg's view by Paul Davies in his introduction to Physics and Philosophy
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“Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , a protégé of Heisenberg, did publish a version of the quote itself in Die Geschichte der Natur ( The History of Nature ) (1948), appearing to consider it an adage:”
"Aus dem Denken gibt es keinen ehrlichen Rückweg in einen naiven Glauben. Nach einem alten Satz trennt uns der erste Schluck aus dem Becher der Erkenntnis von Gott, aber auf dem Grunde des Bechers wartet Gott auf den, der ihn sucht. Wenn es so ist, dann gibt es einen Weg des Denkens, der vorwärts zu religiösen Wahrheiten führt, und nur diesen Weg zu suchen ist lohnend. Wenn es nicht so ist, wird unsere Welt auf die Religion ihre Hoffnungen vergeblich setzen." ("From thinking there is no honest way back into a naive belief. According to an old phrase, the first sip from the cup of knowledge separates us from God, but at the bottom of the cup God is waiting for the one who seeks him. If so,…