Science and Synthesis: An International Colloquium organized by Unesco on the Tenth Anniversary of the Death of Albert Einstein and Teilhard de Chardin

216 Pages·1971·5.84 MB·English

by  René Maheu

SCIENCE AND SYNTHESIS
SCIENCE AND
SYNTHESIS
An International Colloquium organized by Unesco on
the Tenth Anniversary of the Death of Albert Einstein
and Teilhard de Chardin
RENE MAHEU
FERDINAND GONSETH
J. ROBERT OPPEN H EI M ER
WERNER HEISENBERG
REVEREND DOMINIQUE DUBARLE
SIR JULIAN HUXLEY
GIORGIO DE SANTI LLANA
GERALD HOLTON
B. M. KEDROV
F RA NC;O I S L ELI 0 N N A I S
LOUIS DE BROGLIE
RENE POIRIER
PIERRE AUGER
JEAN PIVETEAU
REVEREND PIERRE LEROY
French Contributions Translated by
BARBARA M. CROOK
SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN· HEIDELBERG· NEW YORK 1971
Translated from the French by Barbara M. Crook, with the exception of the papers by
J. R. Oppenheimer, W. Heisenberg, Sir Julian Huxley, G. Holton and B. M. Kedrov,
also certain contributions to the debates, which were originally delivered in English.
All rights reserved.
Original publication in French by Gallimard.
© 1967 by Unesco.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1967
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-143044
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-95208-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-95206-7
DOT: 10.1007/978-3-642-95206-7
Contents
Introduction IX
Speech of Welcome by Rene Maheu XI
PART ONE
Albert Einstein and the Scientific Synthesis
Speakers F. Gonseth: Einstein's Knowledge of Nature and
Philosophy 3
Werner Heisenberg: The Unified Field Theory 12
Reverend Dominique Dubarle: Science and the
Unified Vision of the Universe. Einstein's Ideas
and Teilhard de Chardin's Contribution 17
Sir Julian Huxley: Science and Synthesis 28
G. de Santillana: The Great Cosmological
Doctrines 37
G. Holton: Where is Reality? The Answers of
Einstein 45
B. M. Kedrov: Integration and Differentiation in
the Modern Sciences. General Evolution of
Scientific Knowledge 70
PART TWO
Science and Synthesis: Debates
1. FROM PLURALITY TO UNITY
Chairman F. Ie Lionnais 77
Main Speaker Louis de Broglie 78
Others Reverend F. Russo 84
J. Ullmo 86
A. Lichnerowicz 88
J.-P. Vigier 91
A. Matveyev 93
F. Gonseth 99
V. Kourganoff 100
O. Costa de Beauregard 101
2. TOWARDS A COSMOLOGY
Chairman F. Ie Lionnais
Main Speaker R. Poirier 103
Others A. Lichnerowicz 109
O. Costa de Beauregard 112
J. Merleau-Ponty 114
G. Cocconi 117
Stamatia Mavrides 118
V. Kourganoff 120
A. Trautman 124
W. Heisenberg 125
B. d'Espagnat 126
J.-P. Vigier 128
J. UlIma 129
3. DETERMINISM AND INDETERMINISM
Chairman F. Ie Lionnais
Main Speaker W. Heisenberg 134
Others o. Costa de Beauregard 135
A. Matveyev 138
J. Ullmo 140
B. d'Espagnat 142
J.-P. Vigier 143
Reverend D. Dubarle 145
J.-L. Destouches 146
4. THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
Chairman P. Auger 147
Speakers B. M. Kedrov 151
P. Piganiol 154
G. Holton 156
M. Debeauvais 161
V. Kourganoff 165
Reverend P. Leroy 166
Reverend F. Russo 169
F. Ie Lionnais 173
PART THREE
T eilhard de Chardin
Main Speakers ]. Piveteau 179
Reverend P. Leroy 184
Others o. Costa de Beauregard 186
H. de Terra 191
P. Chouard 192
Madeleine BartheIemy-Madaule 194
F. Meyer 198
Index 203
Introduction
This volume is a collection of the lectures and discussions at an international
colloquium organized by Unesco on the theme of Science and Synthesis to
mark the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of both Einstein and
Teilhard de Chardin, also the 50th anniversary of the theory of general
relativity.
Despite the great gulf which lies between the work of Einstein and Teilhard
de Chardin, the coincidence in the dates provided an opportunity to examine
the urge towards a synthesis of the scientific and philosophical approaches
which lies at the very heart of the work of these two great men. It was, indeed,
their common desire for an all-embracing concept of the universe which led
them both to try to construct a cosmology for the modern world.
So it seemed that the best way of honoring Einstein and Teilhard de Chardin
was to arrange a free discussion of the current likelihood of effecting a syn
thesis of scientific knowledge which would bring together some of today's most
eminent scholars, inspired by the wish to make their research more meaningful
by philosophic reflection. The resulting give and take of ideas would go far
beyond mere commemoration; it would bring their ideas to life by setting them
against the present state of science.
This book falls into three parts. The first, which bears the name of Einstein,
takes its cue from his work and goes on to discuss synthesis in the physical
sciences; it comprises an eye-witness account by Professor Gonseth of Ein
stein's earliest discoveries at Zurich and Berne: Einstein's knowledge of nature
and philosophy as revealed in his work; a paper by Professor J. Robert
Oppenheimer on the man who was his colleague at Princeton; a communication
by Professor Werner Heisenberg: Einstein and Synthesis - the Unified Field
Theory, which pursues the dialogue on determinism and indeterminism which
had gone on for years between the two scientists. The contributions of the
Reverend Father Dubarle, Academician B. Kedrov and Sir Julian Huxley
extend the debate from pure physics to the life sciences and other scientific
IX
x Introduction
disciplines; finally, Professor Giorgio de Santillana locates the modern cos
mologies within the historical perspective of the ancient cosmological doc
trines.
The second part consists of Round Table debates, chaired by Mr. Frans:ois
Ie Lionnais, on three themes: Einstein - from Plurality to Unity; Towards a
Cosmology; and Determinism and Indeterminism. The first was introduced by
the Duc de Broglie, the second by Mr. Rene Poirier and the last by Professor
Heisenberg. This part also includes the debates chaired by Professor Pierre
Auger on synthesis as a method of organizing modern science (coordination
of scientific disciplines and research planning at the national and international
level).
The third part records the exchanges at another Round Table debate on the
work of Teilhard de Chardin, the theme being: Knowledge of Nature and
Man. Mr. Costa de Beauregard, the Reverend Father Leroy and Professor J.
Piveteau took part in these discussions.
So it will be seen that this colloquium on Science and Synthesis, taking as
its starting point the physical sciences, proceeded via the problems of synthesis
in the life sciences to those of the human sciences.
The opinions expressed by the various authors and the points of view
adopted by them are entirely their own and do not necessarily represent those
of Unesco.
Speech of Welcome
BY RENE~ MAHEU
Director General of Unesco
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It was Easter Day, 10th April, 1955. Father Teilhard de Chardin lay dying
in New York; he was 74. Yet at the end of a long life, alternately and some
times even simultaneously brilliant and seclusive, he found only two loyal
friends to follow his coffin to the grave. A week later, on 18th April, 1955,
not many miles away at Princeton, Albert Einstein, his senior by a bare two
years, passed away at the height of his fame, leaving the entire world with a
sense of irreparable loss which persists to this day.
The historian of the future may perhaps pause to reflect upon this dramatic
coincidence. He may contrast the difference in the destinies of these two great
and solitary men of genius, utterly different in their work, their research and
their beliefs, yet spanning the same historical period and suffering its wars and
persecutions, and he may see in the conjunction of their passing one of the
really significant events of this mixed-up age we live in.
We are met together, 10 years after the death of these two great men, to
honor their memory and bear witness to the perennial freshness of their
thoughts and ideas. This is the primary objective of this Colloquium in the
course of which the almost legendary personalities of Einstein and Teilhard
will be freely discussed within the context of contemporary science. You will
hear Professor Gonseth and Professor J. Robert Oppenheimer, both of whom
knew Einstein well, talking about him as a man. This meeting, which is un
conventional in many ways, is, however, more than a simple act of com
memoration. Moreover, no homage could be more welcome to those we seek
to honor than to keep their memory green by relating problems to which they
devoted their lives to today's living reality.
Xl
xu Speech of Welcome
It would be wrong to suppose that the aim of this Colloquium is a con
frontation of their ideas and systems. Such a confrontation, however inter
preted, would presuppose the existence of some basis of comparison, if not
actual assimilation, and this is emphatically not the case.
We are not here to consider their respective niches in the history of science.
We are here for quite another purpose: to stimulate debate on a series of
questions which, as they knew better than anyone, transcend man's greatest
efforts and constantly require examining afresh. If in the course of discussion
their ideas are quoted in support of the argument, it will be only as major
illustrations, highly significant, of course, but in no way exclusive.
Our general theme is Science and Synthesis. The aim of this Colloquium is
to set the procedure and conquests of science - that is to say its methods and
findings - against the demands of intellectual synthesis, as by definition
required for our concepts of man and the universe. I need not tell you that the
work of Einstein and Teilhard is full of typical examples of such endeavors.
The mathematical model of the physical laws of matter which the former
created in his theory of general relativity and the interpretation of the evolu
tion of the forms and dimensions of life which the latter developed from
palaeontology and eschatology are unquestionably, each in its own way and
at its own valuation, the vastest and at the same time the most intensive
systems of knowledge ever conceived. But it is not enough to say that never
before had there been such an ambitious attempt at synthesis in the scientific
field; we must add that never before had synthesis been so consciously and
deliberately identified with the true essence of science as in the minds of these
great men.
Nor need I explain at length the supreme importance Unesco attaches to
questions of the kind inspired by the.example of Einstein and Teilhard on the
theme of Science and Synthesis. It has been said before and it will be said
again, Unesco is an organization with a humanistic vocation. Everything it
undertakes implies a particular view of man, and it tries to promote and
realize this aim step by step but on a universal scale. Everything it does,
technical and specialized though it may appear, has a single aim, a single
direction and a single dimension, engaging the whole man in each of us and the
whole of mankind which is also in each of us. Thus, Unesco is by its very
nature dedicated to the spirit of synthesis, and we must remain vigilant to see
that no temptation towards misplaced erudition, no urge towards greater
efficiency, drags it so far into specialization that it forgets the vocation which
inspires its ethical mission.
On the contrary, in face of the growing specialization of thought and action
brought about by diversification in research and the division of labor, Unesco
has a duty to promote interdisciplinary activities and contacts and to encourage
broad views, in short, to emphasize the vital importance of the spirit of syn-