Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962) was a Danish philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Continental Philosophy.
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to atomic theory and quantum mechanics. His 1913 model of the hydrogen atom introduced quantization into atomic structure, and his later principles of complementarity and correspondence helped to articulate the philosophical foundations of the new physics. He led the institute at Copenhagen, where he trained a generation of theoretical physicists, and he wrote influential philosophical essays on the relation between physics, biology, and human knowledge. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.
Niels Henrik David Bohr was born in 1885 in Copenhagen, the son of the physiologist Christian Bohr; his brother Harald became a distinguished mathematician. He took his doctorate at the University of Copenhagen in 1911, spent a transformative year with Ernest Rutherford in Manchester, and in 1913 published the trilogy of papers in the Philosophical Magazine that introduced quantum conditions into atomic physics. From 1921 he directed the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Copenhagen that bears his name.
His writings, beyond the technical papers, include Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (1934), Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (1958), and Essays 1958-1962 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922, escaped from Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943 with help from the Danish resistance, took part in the Manhattan Project under the name Nicholas Baker, and after the war led a public campaign for openness about nuclear weapons.
Bohr's principle of complementarity — that mutually exclusive experimental arrangements are required for the exhaustive description of quantum phenomena — and his long debate with Albert Einstein over the completeness of quantum mechanics put the philosophical interpretation of physics at the center of twentieth-century thought. The Copenhagen interpretation that bears his city's name remains the standard pedagogical framework for quantum theory. He died in Copenhagen in November 1962.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Danish
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental Philosophy
Selected quotes
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“The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”
Two sorts of truth: profound truths recognized by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth, in contrast to trivialities where opposites are obviously absurd. -
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”
As quoted in Meeting the Universe Halfway (2007) by Karen Michelle Barad, p. 254, with a footnote citing The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr (1998). | Variants: Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum mechanics cannot possibly have understood it. Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. Anyone who is not sho -
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
As quoted by Edward Teller , in Dr. Edward Teller's Magnificent Obsession by Robert Coughlan, in LIFE magazine (6 September 1954), p. 62 | Variant: An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. As quoted by Edward Teller (10 October 1972), and A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991) by Alan L. Mackay, p. 35 -
Attributed to Niels Bohr:
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”
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“We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.”
In his first meeting with Werner Heisenberg in early summer 1920, in response to questions on the nature of language, as reported in Discussions about Language (1933); quoted in Defense Implications of International Indeterminacy (1972) by Robert J. Pranger, p. 11, and Theorizing Modernism : Essays in Critical Theory (1993) by Steve Giles, p. 28
Niels Bohr by topic
Frequently asked about Niels Bohr
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- Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to atomic theory and quantum mechanics.
- How many quotes are attributed to Niels Bohr?
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Quotes that are not actually from Niels Bohr
These lines are widely circulated as Niels Bohr, but they do not appear in Niels Bohr's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Often attributed to Bohr online, and in some books like Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark ( p. 157 ) and The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science by Marcus du Sautoy ( p. 99 ), the quote is actually from John Gribbin's book In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics
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“Stop telling God what to do with his dice.”
A response to Einstein 's assertion that " God doesn't play dice "; a similar statement is attributed to Enrico Fermi Variant: Einstein, don't tell God what to do. Variant: Don't tell God what to do with his dice. Variant: You ought not to speak for what Providence can or can not do. – As described in The Physicists: A generation that changed the world (1981) by C. P. Snow, p. 84 In his chapter on the fifth Solvay Conference (1927), biographer Konrad Kleinknecht writes: 'To his [Einsteins] credo "God does not play dice," Bohr countered, "but it cannot be our task to dictate to God how he should govern the world."' Einstein and Heisenberg: The Controversy Over Quantum Physics , Springer… (Disputed.)
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“Of course not ... but I am told it works even if you don't believe in it.”
Reply to a visitor to his home in Tisvilde who asked him if he really believed a horseshoe above his door brought him luck, as quoted in Inward Bound : Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World (1986) by Abraham Pais, p. 210 In most published accounts of this anecdote such was Bohr's reply to his friend, but in one early account, in The Interaction Between Science and Philosophy (1974) by Samuel Sambursky, p. 357, Bohr was at a friend's house and asked "Do you really believe in this?" to which his friend replied "Oh, I don't believe in it. But I am told it works even if you don't believe in it." In his book Physics and Beyond , Werner Heisenberg presented the anecdote as one that Bohr had… (Disputed.)