Thisbook isnotatextbook tobecomeacquainted with thelaws ofnature. An
elementaryknowledgeaboutlawsofnature, inparticularthelawsofphysics, is
presupposed. Thebookisratherintendedtoprovideaclari?cationofconcepts and
properties of the laws of nature. The authors would like to emphasise
that this book has been developed - created - as a real teamwork.
Although the chapters (and in some cases parts of the chapters) were
originally written by one of the two authors, all of them were discussed
thoroughly and in detail and have been revised and complemented
afterwards. Even if both authors were in agreement on most of the
foundational issues discussed in the book, they did not feel it
necessary to balance every viewpoint. Thus some individual and personal
di?erence or emphasis will still be recognisable from the chapters
written by the di?erent authors. In this sense the authors feel
speci?cally responsible for the chapters as follows: Mittelstaedt for
Chaps. 4, 9. 3, 10, 11. 2, 12, 13 and Weingartner for Chaps. 1, 2, 3, 5,
7, 8. 2, 9. 2, 9. 4. The remaining parts are joint sections. Most of the
chapters are formulated as questions and they begin with arguments pro
and contra. Then a detailed answer is proposed which contains a
systematic discussion of the question. This is the respective main part
of the chapter. It sometimes begins with a survey of the problem by
giving some important answers to it from history (cf. Chaps. 6 and 9).
