Location : Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS), Strasbourg

Date : Monday 9th February 2026, Starting at 16:00

The philosophical legacy of Niels Bohr’s view on the nature of physical reality, by Michela MASSIMI (University of Edinburgh)

In this symposium, I discuss the legacy of Niels Bohr’s view for contemporary philosophical debates on the nature of physical reality. I go back to Bohr’s debate with Einstein on the completeness of quantum mechanics back in 1935 and his specific take on Einstein’s definition of physical reality in the EPR paper (1935). I unpack the Kantian origins of Bohr’s idea and his debt to the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. I then discuss how Bohr’s view, encapsulated in the principle of complementarity, has shaped a particular contemporary debate in the philosophy of science about realism. I present the view known as ‘perspectival realism’ (Massimi 2022) and explain the influence of Bohr’s view behind it.

Michela Massimi is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Edinburgh, affiliated with the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics. She works in the area of history and philosophy of science with a focus on the physical sciences.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Astronomical Society, elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, corresponding Member of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences and elected Member of the Academia Europaea. Michela Massimi is the recipient of the Royal Society’s “Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture” (2017) for her interdisciplinary work and communication of philosophy of science, especially modern physics. Her monograph Perspectival Realism has received the 2023 “Lakatos Award”. From 2015 to 2019 she was Vice-President of the European Philosophy of Science Association, and also served as President (2023-24) of the Philosophy of Science Association.