Max Planck

MAX KARL ERNST LUDWIG PLANCK

Planck
Books

"As long as Natural Philosophy exists, its ultimate highest aim will always be the correlating of various physical observations into a unified system, and, where possible, into a single formula."^1a ARISTOTLE BOOLE POINCARÉ EINSTEIN WIGNER CRICK BROMLEY WATSON

"Nature prefers more probable to less probable states, . . . Heat flows from a body of high temperature to a body of lower temperature, because the state of equal temperature is more probable than a state of unequal distribution of temperature."^1b

"The measure of the value of a new hypothesis in physics is not its obviousness but its utility."^1c

"The chief law of physics, the pinnacle of the whole system is, in my opinion, the principle of least action . . . "^1d

"In all cases, the quantum hypothesis has given rise to the idea, that in Nature, changes occur which are not continuous, but of an explosive nature."^1e SCHRODINGER PENROSE

"Self-determination is given to us by our consciousness and is not limited by any causal law . . . "^1f LEIBNIZ

" . . . Leibniz’s theorem . . . sets forth fundamentally that of all the worlds that may be created, the actual world is that which contains, besides the unavoidable evil, the maximum good."^1g

"Since Galileo’s time, physics has achieved its greatest success by rejecting all teleological methods."^1h

" . . . [T]he second law of thermodynamics appears solely as a law of probability, entropy as a measure of the probability, and the increase of entropy is equivalent to a statement that more probable events follow less probable ones."¹ⁱ MEDAWAR

" . . . [T]he more general a natural law is, the simpler is its form (though it cannot always be said with certainty and finality which is the simplest form) . . . "^1j POINCARÉ


	Max Planck. A Survey of Physical Theory. Translated by R. Jones and D.H. Williams. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. Originally published under the title A Survey of Physics by Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, in 1925. SEARCH BUY IT

Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics.

Max Planck. Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998.
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Treatise on Thermodynamics.

Max Planck. Treatise on Thermodynamics. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.
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Interesting Link
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, Germany. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918, "in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta." http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1918/

* Italics in the original.

¹ Max Planck. A Survey of Physical Theory. Translated by R. Jones and D.H. Williams. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. Originally published under the title A Survey of Physics by Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, in 1925.
^a The Unity of the Physical Universe, at 1.
^b Ibid., at 15.
^c The Place of Modern Physics in the Mechanical View of Nature, at 39.
^d Ibid., at 41.
^e New Paths of Physical Knowledge, at 51.
^f Dynamical Laws and Statistical Laws, at 68.
^g The Principle of Least Action, at 71.
^h Ibid., at 73
ⁱ The Relation Between Physical Theories, at 86.
^j Ibid., at 105.

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