This book offers a collection of texts by Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker (1912-2007), a major German universal scientist who was a pioneer in physics, philosophy, religion, politics and peace research. He started as an assistant to the physicist, Werner Heisenberg, held professorships in theoretical physics (Strasbourg), physics (Goettingen) and philosophy (Hamburg) and was a co-director (with Juergen Habermas) of a Max Planck Institute for Research into living conditions in a world of science and technology in Starnberg. This unique anthology spans the wide scope of his innovative thinking including his philosophical self-reflections, on peace, nuclear strategy, security and defensive defense, on nuclear energy, on the conditions of freedom, on his experience of religion, including poetry from his early youth. Most texts appear in English for the first time and are selected for use in seminars on physics, philosophy, religion, politics and peace research.

This book offers a collection of texts by Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker (1912-2007), a major German universal scientist who was also a pioneer in physics, philosophy, religion on issues of politics and peace research. He worked with Werner Heisenberg and Otto Hahn in the German “Uranverein”, obtained a patent for plutonium during World War II and was an opponent of the nuclear armament of the German armed forces (1957). Furthermore, he published a study on the inability to defend Germany (1971) that was instrumental in the debate on defensive defense since the mid 1970s. He wrote on war and peace, peace and truth, policy implications of nuclear energy, on ethical issues of modern strategy, on consequences of war and war prevention and on the theory of power. He coined the term “world domestic policy” which still covers a valid theory for political, institutional secured world peace in the atomic age.

This book presents a collection of texts by the German philosopher and physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007), for use in seminars on philosophy, mainly epistemology and the philosophy of physics or foundations of quantum mechanics, but also for courses on German philosophy of the 20th century or the philosophy of science. Most texts appear in English for the first time. Weizsäcker became famous through his works in physics, later becoming well known as a philosopher and an analyst of contemporary culture and politics. He worked intensively on projects for the prevention of nuclear war and for peace in general. – Texts about classical philosophy are included as well as on logic, on the philosophy of biology and on the philosophy of mathematics, on “death” as well as on “power”.

This book presents a collection of texts by the German physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007), for use in seminars on the history, epistemology and structure of physics. Most texts appear in English for the first time. Weizsäcker became famous through his works in physics, mainly in the early development of nuclear physics. Later he would also become well known as a philosopher and analyst of contemporary culture. Texts include the original publications of the “Weizsäcker-Bethe formula” of nuclear masses and the “Bethe-Weizsäcker cycle,” which explains the source of energy in the sun; both were developed by Bethe at the same time and independently of Weizsäcker. Further texts deal with Weizsäcker’s explanation of the origin of planets, his explanation of the “time arrow” in Statistical Mechanics and his analyses of Quantum Mechanics and the structure of physics in general.

This book presents a collection of texts by the German physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007) in English, for use in seminars on the philosophy of religion, the comparative study of religion, but as well on the relationship between religion and the scientific worldview. Most texts appear in English for the first time. Weizsäcker became famous through his works in physics, mainly in the early development of nuclear physics. Later he would also become well known as a philosopher and analyst of contemporary culture. He also worked very intensely on projects for the prevention of nuclear war and for peace in general.

In twentieth-century Germany, Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer rose to prominence as a brilliant physical chemist, even as several of his relatives—Dietrich Bonhoeffer among them—became involved in the resistance to Hitler, leading to their executions. This book traces the entanglement of science, religion, and politics in the Third Reich and in the lives of Karl-Friedrich, his family and his colleagues, including Fritz Haber and Werner Heisenberg. Nominated for the Nobel Prize, Karl-Friedrich was an expert on heavy water, a component of the atomic bomb. During the war, he was caught in the middle between relatives who were trying to kill Hitler and friends who were helping Hitler build a nuclear weapon. Karl-Friedrich emerges as a complex figure—an agnostic whose brother was a renowned theologian, and a chemist who both reluctantly advised German nuclear scientists and collaborated with Paul Rosbaud, a spy for the British. Illuminating the uneasy position of science in twentieth-century Germany, The Scientific World of Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer is the story of a man in love with chemistry, his family, and his nation, trying to do right by all of them in the midst of chaos.

In this book 60 authors from many disciplines and from 18 countries on five continents examine in ten parts: Moving towards Sustainability Transition; Aiming at Sustainable Peace; Meeting Challenges of the 21st Century: Demographic Imbalances, Temperature Rise and the Climate–Conflict Nexus; Initiating Research on Global Environmental Change, Limits to Growth, Decoupling of Growth and Resource Needs; Developing Theoretical Approaches on Sustainability and Transitions; Analysing National Debates on Sustainability in North America; Preparing Transitions towards a Sustainable Economy and Society, Production and Consumption and Urbanization; Examining Sustainability Transitions in the Water, Food and Health Sectors from Latin American and European Perspectives; Preparing Sustainability Transitions in the Energy Sector; and Relying on Transnational, International, Regional and National Governance for Strategies and Policies Towards Sustainability Transition. This book is based on workshops held in Mexico (2012) and in the US (2013), on a winter school at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand (2013), and on commissioned chapters. The workshop in Mexico and the publication were supported by two grants by the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF). All texts in this book were peer-reviewed by scholars from all parts of the world.

Progress in Physics has been created for publications on advanced studies in theoretical and experimental physics, including related themes from mathematics.