Hans Halvorson

Supplementsbind / Causality and Complementarity: Supplementary Papers

The supplementary volume: seventeen papers Bohr did not collect himself, several never before printed in Danish, gathered by Steen Brock for Philosophia and by Jan Faye and Henry Folse for Ox Bow. It includes the 1935 Physical Review reply to Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen — with their paper as an appendix — the Faraday Lecture, and the 1950 Open Letter to the UN.

The text

Eight volumes are planned, four Danish and four English; this is volume IV of each. Both sides are transcriptions of published texts, not translations made here: the English is Bohr’s own published English, most of it written by him in that language. The Danish follows Filosofiske Skrifter, Bind IV (Forlaget Philosophia, København 2013, with the Niels Bohr Arkiv); the English follows Ed. Jan Faye and Henry J. Folse. Woodbridge, Conn.: Ox Bow Press, 1998. An independent selection: it is NOT a translation of Philosophia’s Bind IV.

Danish — Filosofiske Skrifter, Bind IV (Philosophia 2013, ed. Steen Brock)

# Title First published
1 Tale ved studenterjubilæet 1903–1928 Tale ved 25-års studenterjubilæum, 21. september 1928
2 Faraday Lecture: Kemi og kvanteteorien om atomernes opbygning Foredrag for Chemical Society, Salter’s Hall, 8. maj 1930. J. Chem. Soc. (1932) 349–384
3 Kvantemekanik og fysisk virkelighed Brev til redaktøren. Nature 136 (1935) 65
4 Kan den kvantemekaniske beskrivelse af fysisk virkelighed opfattes som fuldstændig? Phys. Rev. 48 (1935) 696–702
5 Kausalitet og komplementaritet Foredrag ved 2. Internationale Kongres for Videnskabens Enhed, juni 1936. Naturens Verden 21 (1937) 113–122
6 Atomkernernes egenskaber Foredrag 12. august 1936 ved det nordiske Naturforskermøde, Helsinki. Fysisk Tidsskrift 34 (1936) 186–195
7 Virkningskvantum og atomkerne Festskrift for Max Planck på 80-årsdagen, 17. maj 1938. Fysisk Tidsskrift 36 (1938) 69–84; tysk original Ann. d. Phys. 32 (1938) 5–19
8 Analyse og syntese i videnskaben International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 1 (1938) 28
9 Kausalitetsproblemet i atomfysikken Foredrag ved den internationale konference i Warszawa, 30. maj–3. juni 1938. New Theories in Physics, International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, 1939, pp. 11–30
10 Nyere undersøgelser over atomkernernes omdannelser Foredrag i Selskabet for Naturlærens Udbredelse, 6. december 1939. Fysisk Tidsskrift 39 (1941) 3–32
11 Dansk kultur. Nogle indledende betragtninger Danmarks Kultur ved Aar 1940, Det Danske Forlag, København 1941–43, Vol. 1, pp. 9–17
12 Om målingsproblemet i atomfysikken Festskrift til Prof. N.E. Nørlund, Anden Del, Ejnar Munksgaard, København 1946, pp. 163–167
13 Om begreberne kausalitet og komplementaritet Dialectica 2 (1948) 312–319
14 Atomerne og vor erkendelse Foredrag i skoleradioen 1. april for danske og norske gymnasieelever. Berlingske Tidende, 2. april 1949
15 Åbent brev til De Forenede Nationer Trykt J.H. Schultz, København 1950
16 Fysisk videnskab og studiet af religioner Studia Orientalia Ioanni Pedersen Septuagenario A.D. VII id. Nov. Anno MCMLIII, Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1953, pp. 385–390
17 Fysisk videnskab og menneskets stilling Tale ved åbningssessionen for FN-konferencen Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Genève, august 1955. Ingeniøren 64 (1955) 810–814
18 Appendix: Einstein, Podolsky og Rosen A. Einstein, B. Podolsky and N. Rosen, Phys. Rev. 47 (1935) 777–780

English — Causality and Complementarity (Ox Bow 1998, ed. Faye & Folse)

# Title First published In this edition
1 Maxwell and Modern Theoretical Physics Nature 128 (1931) 691–692 pp. 25–28
2 Chemistry and The Quantum Theory of Atomic Constitution Faraday Lecture to the Chemical Society, Salter’s Hall, 8 May 1930. J. Chem. Soc. (1932) 349–384 pp. 29–61
3 Atomic Stability and Conservation Laws Atti del Convegno di Fisica Nucleare della ``Fondazione Alessandro Volta’’, Ottobre 1931, Reale Accademia d’Italia, Rome 1932, pp. 119–130 pp. 62–72
4 Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? Phys. Rev. 48 (1935) 696–702 pp. 73–82
5 Causality and Complementarity Philosophy of Science 4 (1937) 289–298 pp. 83–91
6 Analysis and Synthesis in Science International Encyclopedia of Unified Science 1 (1938) 28 pp. 92–93
7 The Causality Problem in Atomic Physics New Theories in Physics, International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, Paris 1939, pp. 11–30 pp. 94–121
8 On the Problem of Measurement in Atomic Physics Festskrift til N.E. Nørlund, Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1946, pp. 163–167 pp. 122–125
9 Newton’s Principles and Modern Atomic Mechanics The Royal Society Newton Tercentenary Celebrations, 15–19 July 1946, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1947, pp. 56–61 pp. 126–131
10 Atomic Physics and International Cooperation Address at the National Academy of Sciences symposium Present Trends and International Implications of Science, Philadelphia, 21 October 1946. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 91 (1947) 137–138 pp. 132–135
11 Problems of Elementary-Particle Physics Report of an International Conference on Fundamental Particles and Low Temperatures, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 22–27 July 1946, Vol. 1, The Physical Society, London 1947, pp. 1–4 pp. 136–140
12 On the Notions of Causality and Complementarity Dialectica 2 (1948) 312–319 pp. 141–148
13 Medical Research and Natural Philosophy Acta Medica Scandinavica (Suppl.) 142 (1952) 967–972 pp. 149–154
14 Physical Science and the Study of Religions Studia Orientalia Ioanni Pedersen Septuagenario, Ejnar Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1953, pp. 385–390 pp. 155–160
15 Address at the Opening Ceremony: Seventh International Congress of Radiology Acta Radiologica (Suppl.) 116 (1954) 15–18 pp. 161–163
16 Mathematics and Natural Philosophy The Scientific Monthly 82 (1956) 85–88 pp. 164–169
17 Physical Science and Man’s Position Address at the opening session of the UN conference Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, August 1955. Ingeniøren 64 (1955) 810–814 pp. 170–179
18 Quantum Physics and Biology Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology XIV: Models and Analogues in Biology, Cambridge 1960, pp. 1–5 pp. 180–185
19 Physical Models and Living Organisms W.D. McElroy and B. Glass (eds.), Light and Life, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1961, pp. 1–3 pp. 186–188
20 Address at the Second International Germanist Congress Copenhagen, 22 August 1960. Sp"atzeiten und Sp"atzeitlichkeit, Francke Verlag, Bern 1962, pp. 9–11 pp. 189–191

Status: skeleton. 38 pieces scaffolded; no text transcribed yet.

These are two different books. Vols I–III are Bohr’s own collections and correspond one-to-one across the languages. Volume IV does not: Philosophia’s Bind IV and Ox Bow’s Causality and Complementarity are independent editorial selections that share only nine papers. The Danish carries eight the English omits, plus the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen appendix; the English carries eleven the Danish omits. Each is presented here as the book it actually is, and nothing has been translated across to make them match.

Editorial note

This edition’s one substantive addition to the existing printings is dual marginal pagination. Bohr is normally cited from the collected volumes — “PWNB IV, p. 74” — but the arguments were first made in journals, congress proceedings and Festschriften, and it is that pagination the contemporary correspondence and the Niels Bohr Collected Works cite. A reader working between the two has had to convert by hand. Here both are marked:

  • [n], bold, in the left margin — page n of the original publication named in that essay’s First published line above.
  • |n|, italic, in the right margin — page n of the collected volume: Ox Bow Press in English, Philosophia in Danish.

Ox Bow is the touchstone for the English series — that is what a “PWNB IV, p. n” citation means to a reader. As it happens the choice costs nothing for vols I–III: each was checked against the printed Ox Bow copy and each reproduces its source photographically, so Ox Bow and the first printings (Cambridge 1934, Wiley 1958, Interscience 1963) agree page for page.

Markers sit at the exact word the page turns on. They are set with marginnote rather than \marginpar so that they survive inside block quotations, lists and footnotes, where \marginpar silently drops them. Because the collected editions reset the type, the two series interleave irregularly; that is the point.

The Danish text is Philosophia’s, and Philosophia modernises

One departure from this repository’s usual practice has to be stated plainly. The Danish here follows Filosofiske Skrifter (Philosophia 2013), which keeps Bohr’s titles in their original orthography but modernises the prose — legemernes ligevægt og bevægelser where 1925 printed Legemernes Ligevægt og Bevægelser. So the Danish is not a diplomatic transcription of a first printing in the way the rest of this collection is.

That is deliberate. Most of these pieces were written and first published in English or German; Philosophia’s Danish is itself a translation, and for them there is no original Danish to be faithful to. Setting the minority that were first printed in Danish from their own first printings, while taking the rest from Philosophia, would produce a volume in two orthographies. Philosophia throughout is the coherent choice.

Within that text the transcription is diplomatic in the usual sense: set as printed, errors preserved and logged in a % comment at the site, never silently corrected.

Because of this, [n] on the Danish side marks the first printing of the text in whatever language it appeared: a Danish printing where one exists, otherwise the English or German article whose pagination the literature cites. Each essay’s First published line names it, so it is always clear which.

Each essay’s First published line carries a DOI, or two: the original article’s own DOI where the publisher has registered one, and the Niels Bohr Collected Works chapter, which reproduces essentially everything Bohr published. Both are live links in the PDF.

The Collected Works link matters most for the pieces that will never have a DOI of their own — the Danish articles in Fysisk Tidsskrift, Naturens Verden, Tilskueren and Ingeniøren, and the congress volumes and Festschriften. Every piece with a separate printing carries at least one resolvable link; only the prefaces, which were written for their volumes, carry none.

Where a piece appeared in more than one place, both are given: Bind I’s Atomteorien og Grundprincipperne, for instance, links its Danish first printing in the 1929 Naturforskermøde proceedings and its German printing in Naturwissenschaften 18. Where no DOI exists but the article is on JSTOR, a stable JSTOR URL stands in.

Each link was verified by matching the registered volume and page range against the citation recorded here, not merely by matching a title.

Rights

Unlike everything else in this collection, these texts are not public domain. Bohr died in 1962; the Danish edition (Philosophia 2013) and the English (Ox Bow Press) are both in copyright. Permission to publish has been obtained, and this volume is live on the site. The permission covers the eight volumes described here; further Bohr material — correspondence, the Collected Works, the unpublished manuscripts in the Niels Bohr Arkiv — is not covered by it and should not be added without checking.

All notes and essays · Catalog