Both of these slim pamphlets carry the same oval library stamp in violet ink: "Pro Studio Philosoph. FF. Minorum Prov. Sax. S. Crucis," for the philosophical studies of the Friars Minor of the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross. The causality lecture has neat underlining by an unidentified reader. The marked passages address the meaning and limits of causal prediction. A causal connection between two events means a lawful chaining of the one to the other. The test of causality is the possibility of correct prediction. And then Planck's crucial concession: no measurement, however fine the instruments, can ever agree with prediction in all its decimal places, so that "es bleibt immer ein gewisser Rest von Unsicherheit zurück" — there always remains a certain residue of uncertainty.
The two lectures are Planck at his most public and most philosophical. Das Weltbild der neuen Physik (1929) is the address he returned to Leiden to deliver, twenty years after his famous 1908 lecture there on the unity of the physical world picture. It opens on a personal note: the memory of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, the great Dutch physicist who had first welcomed him to Leiden and let him feel, as Planck writes, the magic of his personality for the first time. Lorentz had died the year before, and the pamphlet bears a printed dedication leaf to his memory. Der Kausalbegriff in der Physik (1932) is Planck's considered answer to the storm Heisenberg's uncertainty principle had raised: a defense of strict causality as an article of scientific faith, written by the very man whose quantum had started the trouble. Planck argues through homely examples — weather prophets whose unreliability had become proverbial, a liter of air whose behavior physics can predict — before conceding how deep the uncertainty runs. These little Barth pamphlets, sold for a few marks each, were how educated Germany followed the debate.
Both are first editions, published by Johann Ambrosius Barth in Leipzig, in their printed wrappers. The Weltbild retains the small ticket of the Leipzig bookseller and antiquarian Paul Koehler, and both pamphlets carry pencil numbers. Planck's popular lectures went through many later printings. Sold as a pair.
Provenance: (1) Paul Koehler, Buchhändler und Antiquar, Leipzig, bookseller's ticket at the foot of the Weltbild title. (2) Philosophy study house of the Friars Minor (Franciscans) of the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross ("Pro Studio Philosoph. FF. Minorum Prov. Sax. S. Crucis"), violet oval stamps to both, with pencil numbers ("3391/g") to both versos; the annotator of the Kausalbegriff is unidentified.
PLANCK, Max (1858-1947). Two works, first editions, uniform provenance: (1) Das Weltbild der neuen Physik. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1929. First edition, with the printed dedication leaf "Dem Andenken an Hendrik Antoon Lorentz." (2) Der Kausalbegriff in der Physik. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1932. First edition.
Physical Description: Two slim octavo pamphlets in the publisher's printed wrappers, titles printed in green; printer's imprint of Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig, in both. The causality lecture with neat underlinings through the opening argument.
Binding: Publisher's wrappers as issued, the Weltbild with a cloth-backed spine strip.
Condition: Wrappers toned, creased and edgeworn, the Kausalbegriff wrapper and first leaves with a corner crease and short tear at the upper fore-edge; text blocks toned with scattered foxing but sound. Both copies show signs of library use.
Both of these slim pamphlets carry the same oval library stamp in violet ink: "Pro Studio Philosoph. FF. Minorum Prov. Sax. S. Crucis," for the philosophical studies of the Friars Minor of the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross. The causality lecture has neat underlining by an unidentified reader. The marked passages address the meaning and limits of causal prediction. A causal connection between two events means a lawful chaining of the one to the other. The test of causality is the possibility of correct prediction. And then Planck's crucial concession: no measurement, however fine the instruments, can ever agree with prediction in all its decimal places, so that "es bleibt immer ein gewisser Rest von Unsicherheit zurück" — there always remains a certain residue of uncertainty.
The two lectures are Planck at his most public and most philosophical. Das Weltbild der neuen Physik (1929) is the address he returned to Leiden to deliver, twenty years after his famous 1908 lecture there on the unity of the physical world picture. It opens on a personal note: the memory of Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, the great Dutch physicist who had first welcomed him to Leiden and let him feel, as Planck writes, the magic of his personality for the first time. Lorentz had died the year before, and the pamphlet bears a printed dedication leaf to his memory. Der Kausalbegriff in der Physik (1932) is Planck's considered answer to the storm Heisenberg's uncertainty principle had raised: a defense of strict causality as an article of scientific faith, written by the very man whose quantum had started the trouble. Planck argues through homely examples — weather prophets whose unreliability had become proverbial, a liter of air whose behavior physics can predict — before conceding how deep the uncertainty runs. These little Barth pamphlets, sold for a few marks each, were how educated Germany followed the debate.
Both are first editions, published by Johann Ambrosius Barth in Leipzig, in their printed wrappers. The Weltbild retains the small ticket of the Leipzig bookseller and antiquarian Paul Koehler, and both pamphlets carry pencil numbers. Planck's popular lectures went through many later printings. Sold as a pair.
Provenance: (1) Paul Koehler, Buchhändler und Antiquar, Leipzig, bookseller's ticket at the foot of the Weltbild title. (2) Philosophy study house of the Friars Minor (Franciscans) of the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross ("Pro Studio Philosoph. FF. Minorum Prov. Sax. S. Crucis"), violet oval stamps to both, with pencil numbers ("3391/g") to both versos; the annotator of the Kausalbegriff is unidentified.
PLANCK, Max (1858-1947). Two works, first editions, uniform provenance: (1) Das Weltbild der neuen Physik. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1929. First edition, with the printed dedication leaf "Dem Andenken an Hendrik Antoon Lorentz." (2) Der Kausalbegriff in der Physik. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1932. First edition.
Physical Description: Two slim octavo pamphlets in the publisher's printed wrappers, titles printed in green; printer's imprint of Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig, in both. The causality lecture with neat underlinings through the opening argument.
Binding: Publisher's wrappers as issued, the Weltbild with a cloth-backed spine strip.
Condition: Wrappers toned, creased and edgeworn, the Kausalbegriff wrapper and first leaves with a corner crease and short tear at the upper fore-edge; text blocks toned with scattered foxing but sound. Both copies show signs of library use.
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