What can Wheeler tell us about the Bohr-Høffding relationship?

Abstract

John Wheeler tells us that Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg met with the Danish philosopher Harald Høffding in the summer of 1927 to discuss the philosophy of quantum mechanics—following the disagreement between Bohr and Heisenberg about the uncertainty relations and right before Bohr’s introduction of his complementarity interpretation of quantum mechanics in Como, Italy, in September 1927. Is this evidence that Høffding had an even greater influence on the early development and interpretation of quantum mechanics than hitherto believed? We trace the historical sources of the story, which Wheeler first heard from Casimir, who apparently was present when the episode took place. We argue that the episode cannot have taken place earlier than 1929 and propose an event in November 1929 as its likely origin. What remains true is that Bohr, Casimir, and Høffding did meet, but the meeting is less remarkable than in Wheeler’s retelling. Nonetheless, Casimir’s role in the story adds new evidence for Høffding’s influence on Bohr. Heisenberg presence, though, is entirely of Wheeler’s invention. We use this rendering to illustrate how Wheeler operated as a storyteller of quantum mechanics from the 1980s to his death.