Schrödinger: Life and Thought [Paperback]

Walter J. Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 29, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0521437679 | ISBN-13: 978-0521437677 | Edition: 1st Ppbk Ed 1992

In the first comprehensive biography of Erwin Schrödinger--a brilliant and charming Austrian, a great scientist, and a man with a passionate interest in people and ideas--the author draws upon recollections of Schrödinger's friends, family and colleagues, and on contemporary records, letters and diaries. Schrödinger led a very intense life, both in his research and in the personal realm. This book portrays his life against the backdrop of Europe at a time of change and unrest. His best known scientific work was the discovery of wave mechanics, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933. In Dublin, he wrote his most famous and influential book What is Life?, which attracted some of the brightest minds of his generation into molecular biology. This highly readable biography of a fascinating and complex man will appeal to anyone interested in the history of our times, and in the life and thought of one of the great men of twentieth-century science.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is an attempt to analyze a soul, and in that respect, it surpasses even `The Double Helix' by James Watson in its examination of the most visceral drives of a great scientist." The New York Times Book Review

"What is Life? That Schrödinger knew the answer, in more ways than one, is revealed to us in this biograpy." Nature

"This is the best book available today on the life and work of Schrödinger." Times Higher Education Supplement

"It is really two books in one: a clear, elegant and complete account of Schrödinger's scientific life and achievements, and a detailed and insightful account of Schrödinger's private life." Physics Today

"...a literate, readable biography accessible to scientists and humanists alike." American Historical Review

"It is very good on the science--sometimes too good--for it does not shirk detailed expositions of Schrödinger's theories." Observer

"An unusually thorough and competent scientific biography of one of the founders of 20th-century physical theory...an absorbing account of the social and scientific culture of Europe in the period after WWI." Choice

"...full and candid story." New York Review of Books

"The quality of this biography is outstanding, and it promises to be the key authority on the life of work of Erwin Schrödinger for years to come." Science Books and Films

"...a delightfully interesting and sympathetic view of a complex and multifaceted man....This book can be recommended as one of the best scientific biographies for how veridically and sympathetically it treats its difficult, complex subject." Perceptual and Motor Skills

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st Ppbk Ed 1992 edition (May 29, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521437679
• ISBN-13: 978-0521437677
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #753,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Gravity

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific and sexual fireworks., June 20, 2003

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Schrödinger: Life and Thought (Paperback)

This is a masterful biography, but one need to have a profound knowledge of higher mathematics and a basic one in physics to fully understand it.

Walter Moore shows that Schrödinger's life and thought was at least controversial.

Life

Schrödinger's personal itinerary is exemplary for the 20th century. He was born in a comfortable upper-middle class, but his parents lost their savings in the German inflation after WW I. The result was famine and diseases. It marked the rest of his life. As a young man he was confronted with unemployment and nearly left physics for financial reasons!

He found a decent job only at the age of 34. Even after winning the Nobel Prize he was still confronted with 'pension' problems.

Science

Walter Moore gives us a magisterial and detailed analysis of the scientific discoveries of ES, from his humble beginnings to the elaboration of the quantum wave function and after.

It shows that ES was above all a mathematical genius and a not so brilliant experimenter.

ES remained all his life opposed to the complemantary (particle/wave) interpretation of quantum mechanics (the 'Kopenhagen oracle' for ES). For him, there were only waves!

Sex

Beside science, sex was the principal occupation of his life, with all combinations imaginable. He lived a ménage à trois and sometimes à quatre, but still fell in love with other women, also with very young ones for he had a Lolita complex. He could without doubt have been accused of paedophilia.

But his intense love affairs stimulated highly his scientific creativity.

One can only wonder if his 'wild' behaviour and negative view of bourgeois marriage were not fundamentally influenced by the fact that he couldn't marry his first true love, because her family found that he was too poor!

Politics

He had a deep contempt for the governing classes (politicians, clergy) who 'enslave men by violence and use the religious desire of many people to promote superstition to rule over the dispossessed'. He also distrusted democracy!

Philosophical world view

This is certainly one of the strangest aspects of his thoughts.

He was convinced that physics provided absolutely no answers to philosophical questions (e. g. free will). All his life he remained, like Einstein, an adept of determinism.

His philosophical views and ethical principles were completely dissociated from his real life!

As an adept of the Vedanta, he believed the Buddhist wisdom that a thing could be both A and non-A (horribile dictu)!

He was also heavily influenced by the philosophy of Schopenhauer.

This work gives excellent explanations of the Vedanta, and the philosophy of Mach and Schopenhauer.

It contains a very painful paragraph on Heidegger.

I see only one minus point: the author doesn't give Bohr's pertinent response to the EPR-article against the Copenhagen interpretation of qm.

This is a brilliant book and certainly the definitive biography of Schrödinger. It is by no means a hagiography and doesn't dodge some 'weird' aspects of Schrödinger's life.

Not to be missed.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ....WOW, March 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Schrödinger: Life and Thought (Paperback)

This book, is amazing. I came across it because I was forced to do a project for chemistry on Erwin Schrödinger, and I'm glad I did. It's a 512 page biography of him, and I think that says it all. It covers and extensive amount of ground, and is very useful for anyone doing any researh on the man. It gives a lot of background information about what was going on in his life, and the events in the world around him. Whenever he went to a new college, there was always some information on the college itself. If Schrödinger did research on a topic, there would be a small history on the scientist that came before him and how they affected him. The book is virtually packed with quotes form other people, letters, and speeches. One of the other things I liked was that it contained details of Schrödinger's personal life, such as his extramarital affairs and details on his marriage, and his family history. Want to see some pictures? There's that too. Bet you didn't know that Schrödinger wrote poetry. Well he did, and all of it is here too, in both German and an English translation. Another thing that makes the book stand out it that it is bery readable. Walter Moore did an excellent job writing the book, and it shows. I can say that you only need to read one book about Schrödinger: this one.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I tawt I taw a putty tat!, February 15, 2001

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Schrödinger: Life and Thought (Hardcover)

The 20th century has boasted a greater number of top-notch physicists than any prior epoch in history. The 21st century, and any future century beyond it, will be hard-pressed to match the level of scientific genius presented by the 20th. Names such as John Archibald Wheeler, Eugene Wigner, Paul Dirac, Max Planck, Louis deBroglie, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, John von Neumann, Richard Feynman, Roger Penrose, Freeman Dyson and Stephen Hawking have set the standard for scientific and intellectual excellence.

Another name which belongs in this esteemed list is that of Erwin Schroedinger. Schroedinger influenced the field of quantum mechanics perhaps more than any other single scientific contributor of modern times. Here, Walter Moore has compiled his unique story so that all may have access to the life and times of this extraordinary man.

Moore's writing style is easily up to the task of keeping the interest of the reader. He does an excellent job of tracing Schroedinger's academic career as he obtained posts at the university of Jena, university of Zurich, university of Berlin [he was the hand-picked successor of none other than Max Planck], university of Oxford, university of Graz (Austria), the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and the university of Vienna. Schroedinger was also offered professorships at 2 US universities as well (university of Wisconsin, Madison and Princeton university), but declined both. Moore does an exquisite job in his disinterment of all the facts, personal factors and politics behind S' decisions to transfer (or not to transfer) from post to post. Moore's elucidation of S' relationship with the Nazis (who called him "Politically unreliable") is exemplery, as is his coverage of the friendships and correspondence that S shared with his peers.

What makes Moore's biography superb is that he equally concentrates on S' personal life as well as his intellectual endeavors. Moore gives an authentic and upfront treatment of S' rather bizarre love arrangements. Like the composer Richard Wagner, S had many affairs with the wives of his friends (a few of which resulted in children), as well as myriad young woman just reaching adulthood. Moore offers a credible psycho-analysis of the motivations for his sexual conquests, and comparisons to the behavior of the persona in Nabokov's "Lolita" which Moore alludes to are certainly warranted.

Like all good modern biographies, the book is filled with plenty of pictures of the personages and locales which were integrated within S' life [including the immortal assemblage of the 1927 (5th) Solvay conference]. Also, for the mathematically inclined amongst us, the work is filled with a good many of the equations that S developed and worked on during his lifetime. The good news, for those of us not so mathematically inclined, is that an understanding of them is not essential to a generic comprehension of what S accomplished.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for all fans of and admirers of this great individual. People who have an interest in the history of science, physics in the 20th century, the philosophy of science and the psychology of the genius will also gain a great deal by reading this biographical treatise. Einstein once wrote S that "...you are my closest brother and your brain runs so similarly to mine" (p 426). This is a splendid illustration of just how pivotal he was to the history of science. In this biography, Moore set out to tell his story. HE DID!! HE DID!!