In nine essays and lectures composed in the last years of his life,
Werner Heisenberg offers a bold appraisal of the scientific method in
the twentieth century--and relates its philosophical impact on
contemporary society and science to the particulars of molecular
biology, astrophysics, and related disciplines. Are the problems we
define and pursue freely chosen according to our conscious interests? Or
does the historical process itself determine which phenomena merit
examination at any one time? Heisenberg discusses these issues in the
most far-ranging philosophical terms, while illustrating them with
specific examples.