Article ID: CBB000930036

Mystik and Technik: Arnold Sommerfeld and Early-Weimar Quantum Theory (2008)

unapi

Seth, Suman (Author)


Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Volume: 31
Pages: 331--352


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a symposium on “Revisiting the Forman Thesis”
Language: English

Mystik and Technik: Arnold Sommerfeld and Early-Weimar Quantum Theory. In his now-classic 1971 paper on physics and Weimar culture, Paul Forman cited the case of Munich's professor of theoretical physics, Arnold Sommerfeld, as a telling example of a respected physicist's linguistic adaptation to an antagonistic cultural milieu. Hardly known for his flights of fancy, Sommerfeld began to speak - in the period after the end of the First World War - of number-mysteries and their place in quantum spectroscopy. For Forman, this was evidence of the readiness of even a Sommerfeld to flirt with the very anti-scientific tendencies he deplored. Without denying the prevalence of talk of mysticism in popular discourse during the Weimar period, this paper suggests that one should see Sommerfeld's use of the term Mystik not as mere pandering to a hostile public, but as an integral part of the practice of his theoretical physics, what he termed the craft of the quantum (die Technik der Quanten). This paper, then, examines, first, the productive place of Mystik within Technik in early-Weimar quantum-theoretical research and, second, what Sommerfeld saw as the (lesser) alternative to his own Technik, Niels Bohr's gifted intermingling of the classical and quantum worlds through his principle of correspondence.

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Article Trischler, Helmuth; Carson, Cathryn; Kojevnikov, Alexei (2008) Beyond Weimar Culture -- Die Bedeutung der Forman-These für eine Wissenschaftsgeschichte in kulturhistorischer Perspektive. Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (p. 305). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000930036/

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Authors & Contributors
Seth, Suman
Eckert, Michael
Artin, Tom
Nándori, I.
Jentschura, U. D.
Trischler, Helmuth
Concepts
Quantum mechanics
Physics
Science and culture
Science and society
Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics
Historiography
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
Places
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
Germany
Japan
California (U.S.)
India
Munich (Germany)
Institutions
Munich. Universität
University of California, Berkeley
University of Tokyo
Kyōto Daigaku (Kyoto University)
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