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Klaus Gottstein

Publications and source records attributed to Klaus Gottstein.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2016

Werner Heisenberg and the German Uranium Project 1939 - 1945. Myths and Facts

The results of a careful analysis of all the available information on the activities of Heisenberg and of his talks during the years 1939 to 1945 can be summarized in the following way. Like several other German physicists Heisenberg was drafted by German Army Ordnance when war began in Europe in September 1939 to investigate whether the energy from splitting Uranium nuclei by neutrons could be used for technical and military purposes. Heisenberg found that this is possible in principle but that military use would require such enormous industrial expenditures that it would take many years and would be impracticable while the war lasted. The project was therefore dropped by the Nazi government in 1942. Heisenberg even refrained from calculating a precise value for the critical mass of U 235. He was relieved that he was thus spared a moral decision between obeying an order to build the bomb or risking his life by refusing to be involved in the project or sabotaging it. He was happy to be confined to a project of building a small test reactor under civilian administration that the government had approved. In 1941 Heisenberg tried to get the opinion of Niels Bohr in Copenhagen on what the international community of nuclear physicist could possibly do or prevent regarding the long-range technical feasibility of making nuclear weapons. Bohr completely misunderstood the cautious approach of Heisenberg.

physics.hist-ph↗
arXiv2013

The Amaldi Conferences. Their Past and Their Potential Future

In this paper the history of the founding and of the development of the Amaldi Conferences is described with special reference to the following aspects and questions: 1. The Origin 2. The Vision of a European CISAC (Committee on International Security and Arms Control) 3. Changes in the Political Landscape and their Consequences 4. Discussions on Widening the Scope of the Amaldi Conferences 5. The "Amaldi Guidelines" 6. Are the Amaldi Conferences still serving their initial purpose? 7. Are there new chances for a European CISAC after the progress in European Unification?

physics.soc-ph↗
arXiv2008

Political Problems Facing Governments in Using Scientific Advice, and Legal and Other Problems Facing Scientists when Trying to Give Independent Advice to Governments

It is the role of the scientific community to provide for the knowledge of scientific facts and technical capabilities as a background for political decision-making. The reasons are given why governments are sometimes not ready to accept well-founded advice. The legal relationship between governments and scientific research are considered. The options available to the scientific community for supplying useful advice to decision-makers and to the public in questions of general concern are delineated.

physics.soc-ph↗
arXiv2006

On the Unfathomableness of Consciousness by Consciousness: Why do physicists widely agree on the assured extent of their professional knowledge, but not so philosophers? An exchange of letters with Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker

On the occasion of Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker's 81st birthday, a colloquium was held on July 3, 1993. One of the topics was "The epistemological foundation of physics from Kant to von Weizsaecker". I took part in the discussion. Afterwards I got the impression that I had not succeeded in making my points clear. Therefore, I wrote an explanatory letter to Prof. von Weizsaecker. This was the beginning of a correspondence on the questions intimated by the title above. In addition, a private discussion between Prof. von Weizsaecker and myself took place. Some readers may be interested in the answers which Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker has given to the naive questions and views of a physicist with only a rudimentary education in philosophy. The starting point of our discussion was my remark that the conspicuous inability of philosophers to agree on the deepest elements of human existence including the basic questions of ethics, which is tantamount to the occurrence of different schools of philosophy competing with each other, could perhaps be traced back to the fundamental inability of man to attain self-knowledge. Physicists, on the other hand, can reach consent, in an equally remarkable way, on the results of their measurements and on whether or not these results agree with the ideas of theory. They just have to deal with res extensa. Here the yardstick does not intend to measure itself, but objects which are external to it, and this is possible. There remains only the question what consequences can be drawn from this realization. Is philosophy, in as much as it gives statements on the totality of human existence, only an expression of the prevailing social circumstances and views, interesting enough as such, but not a gateway to truth?

physics.soc-ph↗