A Medium of Cultural Critique and a Framework for Interpretation: Religion in Werner Heisenberg's Popular Writings

Abstract

In 1969, the physicist Werner Heisenberg published his memoir, titled "The Part and the One: Conversations in the Area of Particle Physics." Up until today, the memoir is Heisenberg's most prominent text addressed to a lay audience. Like most of his popular writings, the memoir discusses epistemological and ontological interpretations of modern physics along with social and cultural problems. Part of these discussions include the role of religion in modern society and in particular the relationship between science and religion. With the premise that Heisenberg refers to religion in these texts, my thesis focuses on how religion (including related aspects of Romanticism and Naturphilosophie) shapes the understanding of science and how, in turn, popular science communication serves as a mechanism of meaning-making in the 20th century. Starting from the observation that popular science communication is an important mechanism of meaning-making, I first discuss the conceptual and analytical framework within which I study the dynamics between the social and cultural systems of science and religion. Second, I use a multimethod approach, combining a historical semantic analysis with an aesthetic analysis, to study three different layers of religion in Heisenberg's texts. Starting with the explicit discussion of religion, I continue with an analysis of the implicit use of religion (including traditions such as pantheism and Neo-Platonism) for the interpretation of modern physics, and end with the study of the aesthetic repertoire (i.e. experience of nature) in the descriptions of knowledge production. Third, I propose an empirically-founded interpretation of the different interference patterns of the dynamics between science and religion. This thesis argues that religion plays a central role in shaping the understanding and response to the social role of science by serving as a medium of cultural critique [Kulturkritik] and a framework of interpretation.