Several attempts have been made, but so far Bohr's essential philosophical writings have never been presented in Danish as a single publication. The publishers Philosophia, in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Archive, have now succeeded in doing just that.

2013.07.24

"It's not as if it has not been possible to read extracts of Bohr's articles on philosophy and scientific theory. In fact, Bohr himself published two volumes of articles. And after his death, his son published a third volume. But still, a number of important philosophical articles which Bohr had published abroad had not been included in the first three volumes. As a result, a volume four was published in English – The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr," explains Steen Brock, Associate Professor in Philosophy at Aarhus University and editor of Philosophia, the academic publishers behind the new Bohr publication.

A publication which could simply have taken the form of a reprinting of the three existing volumes and a translation of the last volume into Danish. However, in order to include the most important aspects and to cover all the philosophical aspects of Bohr, the English version of the last volume has been edited, and now presents the reader with important articles which have not previously been available in Danish.

Reply to Einstein

New material includes, for example, the article "EPR". The article "EPR" is Bohr's refutation of Einstein's, Podolsky's and Rosen's thought experiment which was intended to reveal what they believed to be the inadequacies of quantum mechanics. At the crux of the matter is the discussion between Bohr and Einstein and his colleagues on what constitutes a scientific theory.

"According to Bohr, Einstein's view that a theory must be an accurate snapshot of the real world is unrealistic, and it is not a meaningful demand to make of a physical theory. According to Bohr, the only thing you can expect of a scientific theory is that it encompasses all the relevant phenomena which fall within the subject area being studied," says Steen Brock, and refers to Bohr's famous complementarity principle. Complementarity is the idea that a series of experiments complement each other and form a comprehensive view, for example of the various energy states of an atom.

In addition to Bohr's reply to Einstein, the fourth volume also includes Bohr's Warsaw lecture from 1938, in which he sets out his understanding of the fundamental concepts of physics:
"Bohr is of course, and rightly, a famous physicist. He conceived the model of the atom and also developed the periodic table of elements, but he was more than just a physicist. He was also a great thinker, who, among other things, reflected on a very fundamental aspect of the metaphysics of knowledge. And that is why it is also interesting to read Bohr's collected philosophical writings if you want to know about this dimension of Bohr."

On 6 July 2013, precisely 100 years after Bohr published the first of three important articles in Philosophical Magazine, On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules, Volume 1 of Bohr's philosophical writings is being published in Danish. The remaining three volumes will all be published shortly afterwards. The title of the publication in its entirety is "Niels Bohr: Filosofiske skrifter, Bind 1-4"

Contact
Steen Brock, Associate Professor in Philosophy at Aarhus University
Editor, Philosophia
Email: filsb@hum.au.dk
T: +45 8716 2265 – M: +45 2213 8173