Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers

Description

source of the famous "Planck's principle" of scientific fashions:

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

[Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie. Leipzig 1948. (PAV, Bd. 3, S. 374–401): «Eine neue wissenschaftliche Wahrheit pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, dass ihre Gegner überzeugt werden und sich als belehrt erklären, sondern vielmehr dadurch, dass ihre Gegner allmählich aussterben und dass die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Wahrheit vertraut gemacht ist.»]

as quoted in:
• M. López Corredoira and C. Castro Perelman, Against the Tide: A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done (Boca Raton, Fla.: Universal Publishers, 2008), p. 12
or
• Peter Pesic, Music and the Making of Modern Science (MIT Press, 2014), p. 265.

In this fascinating autobiography from the foremost genius of twentieth-century physics, Max Planck tells the story of his life, his aims, and his thinking. Published posthumously, the papers in this volume were written for the general reader and make accessible his scientific theories as well as his philosophical ideals, including his thoughts on ethics and morals. Max (Karl Ernst Ludwig) Planck was a German physicist and philosopher known for his quantum theory, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, in 1858 to an academic family, and he valued education from a young age. He attended the Universities of Munich and Berlin to study physics under the great scientific leaders Kirchhoff and Helmholtz. His early work mainly focused on the study of thermodynamics, and in 1900 he published a paper on his quantum theory that would change the face of modern physics. Planck worked as a professor at Berlin University his entire life, and he also served as the president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Promotion of Science. During World War II, Planck experienced great hardships while he remained in Germany but openly opposed the Nazi regime. One of his two sons was executed during this time for an unsuccessful attempt on Hitler’s life, and Planck’s home in Berlin was eventually bombed. He continued to write on physics and philosophy until his death in 1947. **