Bohr's framework of complementarity and the realism debate
pp. 119-139
in: Jan Faye, Henry J. Folse (eds), Niels Bohr and contemporary philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 1994Abstract
It is often said that a work of genius resists categorization. If so, Bohr's philosophical viewpoint easily passes this criterion of greatness. Surely this is one of the reasons for the commonplace complaints over Bohr's "obscurity". Thus the scholar who tries to bring Bohr's outlook to a wider audience is immediately in difficulties which must be familiar to all who have contributed to this volume. If we try to let Bohr speak "in his own words' then we find him most elusive at just those points where we want to pose the questions which our philosophical perspective seems to make inevitable. However, if we try to locate Bohr's position with respect to traditional philosophical reference points, then we become immediately uneasy over whether his position is correctly represented. Indeed one easily comes to suspect that the philosopher's categories cannot characterize complementarity without distortion. Perhaps, then, understanding Bohr's relevance for today's philosophical discussions may come more easily if we transform the philosophers' conceptual grid into a system less ambiguous for locating where Bohr stands on the questions that interest us most.