Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-12T02:55:18.301Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autonomy and Quantum Physics: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Heisenberg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Hans Seigfried
Hans Seigfried*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Loyola University of Chicago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The literary and poetic turn in philosophy exudes contempt for science and hostility against technology, both allegedly justified on grounds established by Nietzsche and Heidegger. I try to show that these grounds instead call for an extremely positive assessment of science and technology. It turns out that what Nietzsche and Heidegger describe as our highest achievement, namely, human autonomy, is really made possible by modern experimental physics. And I show how this assessment is borne out by what Heisenberg describes as the lesson of quantum physics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 619 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boscovich, R. J. ([1758] 1966), A Theory of Natural Philosophy. Translated by Child, J. M. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. (1962), Being and Time. Translated by Macquarrie, J. and Robinson, E. New York: Harper & Row. (References are to the marginal page numbers of the 7th German edition.)Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. ([1959] 1966), “Memorial Address”, in Discourse on Thinking: A Translation of Gelassenheit, pp. 43–57. Translated by Anderson, J. M. and Freud, E. H. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. ([1954] 1968), What Is Called Thinking? Translated by Wieck, F. D. and Gray, J. G. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. ([1966] 1976a), “Only a God can Save us: Der Spiegel's Interview with Martin Heidegger”. Translated by Alter, M. P. and Caputo, J. D. Philosophy Today 20: 267–284.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. ([1928] 1976b), “Review of Ernst Cassirer's Mythical Thought”, in The Piety of Thinking: Essays by Martin Heidegger, pp. 32–45. Translated by J. G. Hart and J. C. Maraldo. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. ([1954] 1977), “The Question Concerning Technology”, in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, pp. 3–35. Translated by Lovitt, W. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. ([1927] 1984a), “Ueber die Grundprinzipien der ‘Quantenmechanik‘”, in Gesammelte Werke/Collected Works. Abteilung C: Allgemeinverständliche Schriften/Philosophical and Popular Writings. Vol. 1: Physik und Erkenntnis, 1927–1955, p. 21. Edited by W. Blum, H.-P. Dürr, and H. Rechenberg. Munich: Piper Verlag.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. ([1928] 1984b), “Erkenntnistheoretische Probleme in der modernen Physik”, in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 1, pp. 22–28.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. ([1954] 1984c), “Das Naturbild der heutigen Physik”, in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 1, pp. 398–420.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. ([1966] 1984d), “Die Rolle der Phänomenologischen Theorien im System der theoretischen Physik”. Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 2: Physik und Erkenntnis, 1956–1968, pp. 384–387.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. ([1968] 1984e), “Theory, Criticism and a Philosophy”. Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 2: Physik und Erkenntis, 1956–1968: 423–438.Google Scholar
Jefferson, A. (1986), “Manichaean Dichotomies” (Review of J. G. Merquior's From Prague to Paris: A Critique of Structuralist and Post-Structuralist Thought). Times Literary Supplement, November 21, p. 1306.Google Scholar
Lange, F. A. ([1866] 1925), The History of Materialism. Translated by Thomas, E. C. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Co.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1872] 1967a), The Birth of Tragedy. Translated by Kaufmann, W. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1886] 1967b), “Attempt at a Self-Criticism”, in The Birth of Tragedy, pp. 17–27. Preface to the Second Edition. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. (1969), Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche. Translated and edited by Middleton, C. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1882] 1974), The Gay Science. Translated by Kaufmann, W. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1873] 1979), “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense”. Philosophy and Truth: Selections from Nietzsche's Notebooks of the early 1870s, pp. 79–91. Translated and edited by Breazeale, D. New Jersey: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. (1980a), Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, I & II. Sämtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe, Vol. 1, pp. 157–335. Edited by Colli, G. and Montinari, M. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1880–1882] 1980b), Nachgelassene Fragmente. Sämtliche Werke, vol. 9.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1884–1885] 1980c), Nachgelassene Fragmente. Sämtliche Werke, vol. 11.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1874] 1980d), On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life. Translated by Preuss, P. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, F. ([1878] 1984), Human, All Too Human, vol. 1. Translated by Faber, M. and Lehmann, S. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Plato (1969), Laws. Translated by Taylor, A. E. The Collected Dialogues of Plato, pp. 1225–1513. Edited by Hamilton, E. and Cairns, H. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. V. O. (1963), “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, in From a Logical Point of View, pp. 20–46. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Seigfried, H. (1988), “Transcendental Experiments (II): Kant and Heidegger”. Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Lectures and Essays, pp. 123–156. Edited by Kockelmans, J. J. Washington, D.C.: Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology and University Press of America.Google Scholar
Seigfried, H. (1990), “Heideggers Technikkritik”, in Lebenswelt und Wissenschaft: Studien zum Verhältnis von Phänomenologie und konstruktiver Wissenschaftstheorie. Edited by Gethmann, C. F. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag.Google Scholar