QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

Bohr’s thinking is fittingly enlightened also in the current debate within philosophy of science
concerning realism and pragmatism. Several researchers have seen Bohr’s viewpoint as
becoming in many respects close to Pragmatism. 644 Like Bohr, Pragmatists do not make a clear
division between the subject and external reality, and they highlight the role of humans and their
actions in creating truths. To Pragmatists, question of ontology also remain in the background
and is connected with epistemology and values as they ask which kind of method of talking
about reality is meaningful and possible from a human viewpoint. 645
Complementarity clearly has points of contact with the thoughts of Nelson Goodman and Hilary
Putnam, according to whom the world can be investigated as an open and inexhaustible reality
which humans can always approach from new viewpoints. The faces of the world can then
always be viewed in a new way, and no language, viewpoint or system of concepts can exhaust
the unlimited aspects of its unending abundance. 646 With the help of mathematics, however, Bohr
evaded the threat of Relativism that is linked with Pragmatism. Complementary ways of
description allow us to visualise phenomena which are, in principle, consistent with descriptions
employing mathematical formalism. 647 Max Born expressed things by saying that
complementarity is applicable to two different aspects of a single physical situation. They are
both useful by providing an intuitive understanding of the situation which however can only be
properly understood with the aid of the mathematical theory. 648
To Bohr, Pragmatism however was no starting point at all. He did not weaken the traditional
realism of physics, in which objective knowledge was believed to correspond to the absolute
structure of reality, for either pragmatic or positivist reasons. He did not think that humans
should ignore the reality which lies behind their observations, or that he could invent theories
which served only his needs. Bohr had to bind his theory to human practice for more Kantian 649
reasons. For humans, the adoption of a complementary method of portrayal is unavoidable
643
Bohr 1958, 27.
644
Those who stress the pragmatist features of Bohr’s philosophy often claim that he was influenced by
Kierkegaard, William James or Harald Höffding. David Favreholdt, who relies on extensive research material,
strongly contests their influence. Favreholdt 1992, 62. When Bohr became acquainted with James’ ideas, he noted
their similarity to his own and referred to them in an almost regular manner after 1936.
645
Pihlström 1977, 139.
646
Pihlström 1997, 182.
647
See further Kallio-Tamminen 2004.
648
Born 1968, 105-6.
649
Bohr has been considered to be a pragmatic Kantian (Folse 1994, 121.) or a developer of Kant’s doctrine on the
basis of the quantum revolution (Hooker 1994, 155-182). Many researchers such as Honner, Keiser and Chevalley
have found similarities between Bohr and Kant, even though Bohr makes no reference to Kant in any article or
letter, and all his rare statements concerning Kant’s critical philosophy are negative.
237