4. Niels Bohr and Daoism

In this fourth clip from the documentary, "The Wisdom of China: Laozi," Professor Bryan Van Norden of Vassar College discusses how Nobel Laureate in Physics Neils Bohr was indebted to the philosophy of Daoists like Laozi.

[jklep]

I did not know Bohr was so connected to Daoist ideas. Must learn more about this. Thank you for the brief video, hope there is an extended version coming soon.

[Katherine-oume]

A beautifully narrated video. The simplicity and clarity ❤

[mechannel]

Wow, so good of you to put chinese subtitles in the video. I'm sure a lot of chinese speakers will appreciate it

[christopherinman]

At 2:49, I believe the English word 'air' in the close-captioning should be spelled 'err' which meant 'to commit an error' at one time.

[davidevans]

Fascinating . Look forward to seeing the whole documentary!

[InfoArtistJK]

Beautifully presented. Information is the most fundamental. "It is operationally impossible to separate Reality and Information" -- Quantum Information Physicist and 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Anton Zeilinger

[Sophia-yorp]

Thank you so much. I Have been matching Eastern Philosophy with Quantum mechanics in my contemplations but I am no scientist so keep these thoughts to myself. This is where science meets philosophy. Your work is appreciated. Thank you.

[jessewallaceable]

This is what we need! Thanks for making this man.

[BaritoneUkeBeastLife]

Wow this was eye opening for me. I am very happy to hear that Niels Bohr was heavily influenced by Daoism. One thing most westerners get wrong about the concept of Yin and Yang is that they are opposites and two seperate things. Yin and Yang should more accurately be described as aspects of the same thing just at different ends of the spectrum. That is why they each contain elements of the other to show that they are the same not at all opposite. Like a coin has a front and back but it is still one coin. So instead of interpreting Yin and Yang as opposites they should be thought of in terms of extremes of the same spectrum just at different ends. Like hot and cold, light and dark or loud and quiet which are measured in varying degrees of.

[petrasurin]

This is really, really cool. Love the production here.

[seanfleming]

we might need a Netflix series here, a la "Cosmos"

[raoultesla]

I have not had ore Heavy Deep thought tying together so so much in years. Thanks for the fodder. All physicists become philosophers.

[mechannel]

When will the documentary come out? Can't wait

[ryokan]

Could you please let me know when the full documentary will be released? Will it be released on YouTube?

[ericm]

It's true that modern QM challenges Aristotlean logic, but I'm inclined to think that they can be reconciled. The idea that things contain "opposites" and that this plays a role in change isn't really something I would think Aristotle would object to on the grounds of it being contradictory. Aristotle talks about "contrarieties" like hot/cold, light/dark that are pairs of "opposites" but aren't contradictory. Cold isn't the absence of heat (to aristotle (and arguably to us phenomenologically)), but for some reason, we never observe something that is both hot and cold at the same time, and we intuitively understand them as being opposed in some sense. If something is both hot and cold, that wouldn't be contradictory on aristotles view. It might make the most sense to split the object up into hot and cold parts, but Aristotle doesn't even need to do that to make it consistent with his law of non-contradiction. The clip sort of gives the impression that Aristotle's logic can't accomodate that, or other common sense examples of things being in tension with itself, when it can.

[thomasshoener]

This is wonderful material, Prof. Van Norden. So…God does play dice! Thought so.

[claudelebel]

The music is not loud enough. I can still hear the narrator.

[timothykodysh]

good morning, could you please remix this video with less music, each phrase, each comment is so important, but had to be rewound to recognize many times
thank you for posting this

[bonbon__candy__]

Professor, I'm new to this channel, loving your lectures! What are your personal beliefs if you don't mind me asking, are you a religious man?

[jjay]

I didn’t know about Bohr but I knew about Schrodinger who said he does not meet God in space and time and he talked about the Upanishads.