The Epistemological Conflict between Einstein and Bohr (Dedicated to Max Born on his 80th Birthday) [1963c]

Abstract

As our knowledge of atomic phenomena has grown and developed, we have been led to the conclusion that probability must play an essential part in our account of the unfamiliar behaviour of atoms. The classical framework of unrestricted determinism has proved too narrow and has given place to a more general relationship between the various aspects of phenomena. For this new relation Niels Bohr has coined the name “complementarity”. But this momentous widening of our scientific and philosophical outlook was not achieved without a struggle. Classical causality had its staunch supporters, foremost among them Einstein. That Einstein, one of the most powerful minds that mankind ever produced, should thus refuse to accept the leading thought of the time is in itself an astonishing fact, which cannot fail to repay a closer analysis. But the interest of the case is further enhanced by certain features which at first sight look quite paradoxical.