The Personal Context Of The Einstein-Bohr Debate By Albert Einstein

Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein are names anyone who has taken a basic physics course is familiar with. Posters of Albert Einstein can be easily encountered hanging on walls, with quotes that often do not contemplate any scientific content. These scientists are two of the most influential personalities of modern physics, although little is talked about the respectful rivalry that took place between the two over nearly 30 years regarding physics’ most revolutionary branch of quantum mechanics. In his essay, “Bringing the Human Actors Back on Stage: The Personal Context of the Einstein-Bohr Debate,” David Kaiser is the first to deeply explore how the diverging personalities of Einstein and Bohr might have been the root of their opposing stances
In his letter on April, 29th 1924, Einstein brings up his initial “indisposition” about quantum mechanics by saying that he finds the idea “quite intolerable that an electron […] should choose of its own free will” (82) where to go. In this letter, he openly addresses that the lack of causality bothers him greatly, which is reiterated in his future letter on his December 4th, 1926. Einstein brings up his disbelief on quantum mechanics by saying that “an inner voice tells [him] it is not yet the real thing” (91) because it does not bring them closer to the truth of ‘the old one’, here interpreted as God. The scientist adds that he believed God “[does] not [play] dice” (91), which suggests a comparison to the uncertainty unraveled and required by quantum mechanics and thus an established connection between religion and how it influenced his thoughts about this novel area of physics. These rather philosophical and religious thoughts set the stage for an Einstein that allowed non-scientific inquiry influence his impressions about science. In these letters, it is clear that his inclination to fight quantum mechanics and disprove it as a theory did not have, at least initially, roots in a merely scientific belief – he had a
On the one hand is Bohr, a curious scientist that never gave religion much thought and appeared to discard it early on. On the other hand is Einstein, a hard worker who also took the time to form opinions about religion and which ultimately could not separate his religious beliefs from his scientific endeavors. Einstein’s vehement determination, not to come up with a new theory, but to disprove quantum mechanics, is well explained by how personally distraught the concepts of quantum mechanics left him due to a rupture with his religious beliefs. The “religious feeling” permeated every aspect of Einstein’s life and he sought to look “Through the Looking Glass” in order to understand the world around him through physics conciliating this with a deeper understanding of himself, God and the universe – these pieces could not be