Coniunctio of Physis and Psyche Pauli as impetus or exemplar for integration of science and faith
Mission: Impossible • Your mission, if you choose to accept, is: P/TOE Philosophy/Theology of Everything
Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) Nobel Prize, Physics, 1945, exclusion principle Close and extended relationships: Ernst Mach, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Arnold Sommerfeld, Niels Bohr, Carl Jung
Picture available on line Young Pauli, Child Prodigy Physics is easy, women are hard (1900-1958)
Picture available on line Ernst Mach, godfather Anti-metaphysical positivist Mach Society = Vienna Circle (1838-1916)
Picture available on line Albert Einstein Physics and women are easy (1879-1955)
Picture available on line Werner Heisenberg, friend/schoolmate Uncertainty principle (1901-1976)
Picture available on line Arnold Sommerfeld, super-physics teacher of Pauli, Heisenberg, et.al., “Hussar colonel” 84 Nobel nominations, most of any physicist (1868-1951)
Picture available on line Niels Bohr “Pope” of Copenhagen Complementarity philosophy (1885-1962)
Picture available on line Carl Jung, Psychiatrist Women are easy, physics is hard (1875-1961)
• 2500 pages of publications Two major articles (100 pages) on “philosophy” “Science and Western Thought,” lecture in Mainz, 1955 “The Influence of Archetypal Representations on the Development of Kepler’s Scientific Theories,” part of Jung/Pauli book (1952), The Interpretation of Nature and Psyche BUT 7500 Pages of Personal Correspondence
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Outline • Alchemical objections to Kepler/classical physics • Quantum contributions: paradox, com- plementarity, effect of observation, etc. • From Trinitarian to Quaternarian (Pythagorean number mysticism)
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Platonian views lead to: Good = rational = reality (Ideals, Forms) Evil = irrational = matter Avoid dualism by: Evil is lack of good, privatio boni, matter is lack of Ideals/Form. Pauli saw this as wrong representation of both evil and matter.
Fludd’s objections • Loss of anima mundi • Loss of number mysticism • Vulgar mathematics replaced pure math • No successful vision of cosmic harmony • Loss of spirit/purpose/teleology to causality
Picture available on line Pauli at 40, escapes to US for WWII (his wife’s favorite photo of him)
Pauli’s crises, c.1929 • Brief marriage to dancer (left him for a chemist (!?) , a bull-fighter, OK, but chemist? ) • Father leaves mother for younger sculptress • Mother commits suicide • Pauli leaves Catholic Church (good? bad?)
Pauli, Critic and Jinx • Jinx • Known for jinxing physics experiments, indeed all things mechanical, unintentionally, unconsciously. • Scourge of God, des Gottes Geissel • Book review: “It was printed on fine paper.” • About atheism: “There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.” • To a lecturer: “Yes, you made a sign error, an odd number of times.”
Pauli, Physicist, 1900-1958 • By age 21, wrote standard “book” on Einstein’s relativity • Pauli exclusion principle (1920s), principle of building atoms, Nobel Prize 1945 • Proposed “invisible” neutrino, 1932, unseen particle to maintain conservation principles
e - spin down e - spin up
Classical vs. Quantum Classical Mechanics (CM) Quantum Mechanics (QM) • • Matter and energy, act as Matter, as particles or a continuum of mass particle/wave, continuous/ discontinuous combined • Particle/waves are created, • Mass particles are forever annihilated, and transformed • STEPS (no handicap • Causal continuous deter- accessible ramps) require mined motion in space and JUMPS time • • Predict only the odds Prediction perfect
CM vs QM, continued CM QM • WYSIWYG, epistemology = • Epistemological agnosticism ontology with ontological abstinence • Detached observer of • Observer has unpredictable external reality effects, uncertainty • Reality is obvious, just • Paradoxical, complemen- masses that move tary, contradictory. Is it real? • God in complete control (or • Is God in control, or did he maybe not even there) leave it to chance?
Ιερό γάμο της φύσης και της ψυχής Physis Psyche
Ιερό γάμο της φύσης και της ψυχής Psyche Physis
Complementarity in Theology 1. Ontological paradox: tri-unity in the being of God. 2. Cosmological paradox: God as separate from but completely involved with his creation; transcendence /immanence. 3. Epistemological paradox: knowledge of God coming through revelation. 4. Anthropological paradox: man as free yet predestined. 5. Christological paradox: divine/human nature of Christ. 6. Soteriological paradox: salvation showing God’s mercy/judgment. 7. Eschatological paradox: limitless love/eternal punishment. 8. Genealogical paradox: origin in natural processes/origins in God
Paradox in Christian Teaching • The blessed poor • First shall be last, last/first • Love your haters • Leader as servant • Blessing of giving • Die to live • Present but ever coming kingdom • God is near/far • Strength in weakness
Particle/Wave analogies in Christian Experience • Creation in moment/continuing creation (evolution) • Spiritual birth/spiritual growth (sanctification) • Wedding/marriage • Special revelation/general revelation • Healing in moment/health • Baptism in Spirit/walk in Spirit • Gifts of Spirit/fruits of Spirit • Pastor-priest-missionary/priesthood of all believers • Epiphany/practicing the presence of God • Outward sacramental rites/ inward reality
Potential becomes actual • Atom level • Chance • Mankind level • Free will • God level • Grace
Quaternity of Quantum Mechanics Momentum-energy conservation 𝐹 𝑗 = 𝑑𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑜𝑢 (∆𝑦)(∆𝑞) ≥ ℎ/4𝜌 Momentum (p) Position (x) Energy (E) Time (t) (∆𝑢)(∆𝐹) ≥ ℎ/4𝜌 𝑞 𝑗 = 𝑑𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑜𝑢 Space-time continuity and symmetry
The combined complementarities of physics and psychology form a quaternity : Indestructible energy and Physics momentum Definite spatio-temporal process Psychology Timeless collective Self-awareness, unconscious time
Proposed combined quaternity Energy-momentum conservation Meaningless determined Meaningful unique causality synchronicity Space-time continuum
Pauli’s Strengths/Contributions • Consistent and sustained principle of complementarity • Willingness to look at spirit, magic, mysticism, religion, etc. • Insistence on will, life, the effect of a person • Trying to see wholeness in world with a deeper reality which bridged psycho-physical parallelism • Chance, choice, grace, will as room for God/Nature to work without breaking physical law
Pauli Contributions, continued • Continuous creation with creation of particles, jumps in going from p otentia to occasion, development of history, becoming • Insistence on evil as something more than privation boni (lack of good). Will can be evil but it is redeemable. Christianity (esp. Protestantism) as “little lamb’s tail,” unwilling to see active evil. • Teleology, part of life, thus part of reality, including inanimate nature • Sees danger in separation of science and religion, in rational and irrational
A Sufficiently Representative Stack of Books Laurikainen, Kalervo Vihtori. 1997. The message of the atoms: essays on Wolfgang Pauli and the unspeakable . Berlin: Springer. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=3094390 . Pauli, Wolfgang, C. G. Jung, Carl Alfred Meier, C. P. Enz, M. Fierz, David Roscoe, and Beverley Zabriskie. 2014. Atom and archetype: the Pauli/Jung letters, 1932-1958 . Princeton: Princeton University Press Laurikainen, Kalervo Vihtori. 1988. Beyond the atom: the philosophical thought of Wolfgang Pauli . Berlin: Springer-Verl. Jung, C. G., and Wolfgang Pauli. 2012. The Interpretation of Nature and the psyche . Bronx, N.Y.: Ishi Press
My related publications • Faries , Dillard W. “A Personal God, Chance, and Randomness in Quantum Physics.” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 66(1) (March 2014) 13 – 22. • Faries, Dillard, forthcoming book, Amazing Grace of Quantum Physics (suggested title), Wipf and Stock, 2018 (suggested publication date)
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