Niels Bohr — "The meaning of our words is always context-dependent."
The meaning of our words is always context-dependent.
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More from Niels Bohr
"Stop telling God what to do with his dice."
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct."
"Accuracy and clarity of expression are a matter of degree."
"When we speak of the electron, we are not speaking of something that really exists, but of something that we have imagined."
"The scientist's greatest reward is the joy of discovery."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Words don't carry fixed, universal definitions — their meaning shifts depending on the situation, conversation, and framework in which they're used. What something means in one context can differ entirely in another. Communication requires shared understanding of the surrounding conditions, not just the words themselves. Language is inherently relational, not absolute.
Relevance to Niels Bohr
Bohr pioneered complementarity in quantum mechanics — the idea that particles exhibit wave or particle behavior depending on how you observe them. His entire career grappled with how observation context determines physical reality. He famously clashed with Einstein over whether quantum descriptions were complete, arguing that experimental setup fundamentally shapes what can be meaningfully said about a system.
The era
The early 20th century saw physics undergo a conceptual revolution. Quantum mechanics dismantled classical certainties: Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, wave-particle duality, and Copenhagen interpretation challenged the idea of observer-independent reality. Philosophy of language was simultaneously evolving through Wittgenstein and logical positivism, making context-dependency of meaning a central intellectual preoccupation across multiple disciplines simultaneously.
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