Heisenberg’s 1958 Weltformel and the Roots of Post-Empirical Physics

This book presents the first detailed account of Werner Heisenberg’s failed attempt to find a theory of everything in the autumn of his career. It further investigates what we can learn from his failure in relation to the search for a final theory of physics, an endeavour that continues to define research in fundamental physics to this day. Thereby it provides the first historically informed contribution to the current debate on post-empirical physics and the state of particle physics.

• History of Physics
• Philosophy of Physics
• Particle and Quantum Physics
• Weltformel Heisenberg
• Theory of Everything
• Post-Empirical Physics
• Non-Empirical Theory Assessment
• History of Quantum Field Theory
• Heisenberg and Pauli
• German Physics after World War II
• Failure in Science
• Non-linear spinor theory
• World Formula
• Unified Field Theory

• Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, Germany

  Alexander S. Blum

Alexander S. Blum received a PhD in theoretical particle physics from the University of Heidelberg in 2009. He then moved to the history of science, joining the Max Planck Institute in Berlin in 2010. In 2018 he started his own Max Planck Research Group, entitled "Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program."

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