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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
Young Pauli, Child Prodigy Physics is easy, women are hard
(1900-1958)
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Ernst Mach, godfather Anti-metaphysical positivist
Mach Society = Vienna Circle (1838-1916)
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Albert Einstein Physics and women are easy
(1879-1955)
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Werner Heisenberg, friend/schoolmate
Uncertainty principle
(1901-1976)
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Arnold Sommerfeld, super-physics teacher of Pauli, Heisenberg, et.al., “Hussar colonel”
84 Nobel nominations, most of any physicist (1868-1951)
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Niels Bohr “Pope” of Copenhagen
Complementarity philosophy (1885-1962)
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Carl Jung, Psychiatrist Women are easy, physics is hard
(1875-1961)
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• 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
This tape will self-destruct in three seconds
Outline
• Alchemical objections to Kepler/classical physics
• Quantum contributions: paradox, com-plementarity, effect of observation, etc.
• From Trinitarian to Quaternarian (Pythagorean number mysticism)
24K
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
Pauli at 40, escapes to US for WWII (his wife’s favorite photo of him)
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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 up
e- spin down
Classical vs. Quantum
Classical Mechanics (CM)
• Matter, as particles or a continuum of mass
• Mass particles are forever
• Causal continuous deter-mined motion in space and time
• Prediction perfect
Quantum Mechanics (QM)
• Matter and energy, act as particle/wave, continuous/ discontinuous combined
• Particle/waves are created, annihilated, and transformed
• STEPS (no handicap accessible ramps) require JUMPS
• Predict only the odds
CM vs QM, continued
CM
• WYSIWYG, epistemology = ontology
• Detached observer of external reality
• Reality is obvious, just masses that move
• God in complete control (or maybe not even there)
QM
• Epistemological agnosticism with ontological abstinence
• Observer has unpredictable effects, uncertainty
• Paradoxical, complemen-tary, contradictory. Is it real?
• Is God in control, or did he leave it to chance?
Ιερό γάμο της φύσης και της ψυχής
Ph
ysis
Psyche
Ιερό γάμο της φύσης και της ψυχής
Physis
Psy
che
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
• Mankind level
• God level
• Chance
• Free will
• Grace
Quaternity of Quantum Mechanics Momentum-energy conservation
Space-time continuity and symmetry
Position (x)
Time (t)
Momentum (p)
Energy (E)
(∆𝑥)(∆𝑝) ≥ ℎ/4𝜋
(∆𝑡)(∆𝐸) ≥ ℎ/4𝜋
𝐸𝑖 =𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
𝑝𝑖 =𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
Psychology
Timeless collective
unconscious
Self-awareness,
time
The combined complementarities of physics and psychology form a quaternity:
Physics Indestructible energy and
momentum
Definite spatio-temporal
process
Proposed combined quaternity
Energy-momentum
conservation
Meaningless determined
causality Meaningful unique
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 potentia 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
Jung, C. G., and Wolfgang Pauli. 2012. The Interpretation of Nature and the psyche. Bronx, N.Y.: Ishi Press
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.
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.
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)