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Niels Bohr and Complementarity

An Introduction

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. Arkady Plotnitsky

    1. Theory and Cultural Studies Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

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  • Contains a unique analysis of Bohr’s work in quantum field theory
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Physics (SpringerBriefs in Physics)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
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  2. 1900–1962: From Planck to Bohr

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 1-15

  3. 1913. “On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules”: Quantum Jumps and Epistemological Leaps

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 17-25

  4. 1925. “Atomic Theory and Mechanics”: From the Old Quantum Theory to Heisenberg’s Quantum Mechanics

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 27-40

  5. 1927. “The Quantum Postulate and the Recent Development of Atomic Theory” (The Como Lecture): Complementarity Versus Causality

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 41-57

  6. 1929. “The Quantum of Action and the Description of Nature”: New Complementarities and a New Interpretation

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 59-69

  7. 1931. “The Space–Time Continuity and Atomic Physics” (the Bristol Lecture): Quantum Phenomena and the Double-Slit Experiment

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 71-87

  8. 1933. “On the Question of Measurability of Electromagnetic Field Quantities”: Complementarity and Quantum Field Theory

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 89-106

  9. 1935. “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”: The EPR Experiment and Complementarity

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 107-136

  10. 1937–1938. “Complementarity and Causality” and “The Causality Problem in Atomic Physics” (The Warsaw Lecture): The Knowable and the Unthinkable

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 137-165

  11. 1954–1962. “The Unity of Knowledge”: New Harmonies

    • Arkady Plotnitsky
    Pages 167-179

  12. Back Matter

    Pages 181-199
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Keywords

About this book

This book offers a discussion of Niels Bohr’s conception of “complementarity,” arguably his greatest contribution to physics and philosophy. By tracing Bohr’s work from his 1913 atomic theory to the introduction and then refinement of the idea of complementarity, and by explicating different meanings of “complementarity” in Bohr and the relationships between it and Bohr’s other concepts, the book aims to offer a contained and accessible, and yet sufficiently comprehensive account of Bohr’s work on complementarity and its significance.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Theory and Cultural Studies Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

    Arkady Plotnitsky

About the author

Arkady Plotnitsky is a professor of Theory and Cultural Studies at Purdue University, where he is also a director of the Theory and Cultural Studies Program, and a co-director of the Philosophy and Literature Program. He has published extensively on philosophy of physics and mathematics, continental philosophy, British and European Romanticism, Modernism, and the relationships among literature, philosophy, and science. His most recent books are Epistemology and Probability: Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger and the Nature of Quantum-Theoretical Thinking (2009), Reading Bohr: Physics and Philosophy (2006), and a co-edited (with Tilottama Rajan) collection of essays Idealism Without Absolute: Philosophy and Romantic Culture (2004).

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