Abstract
IT is only with great hesitation that I have accepted a kind invitation to address this assembly of distinguished representatives of the anthropological and ethnographical sciences of which I, as a physicist, have of course no first-hand knowledge. Still, on this special occasion, when even the historical surroundings speak to everyone of us about aspects of life other than those discussed at the regular congress proceedings, it might perhaps be of interest to try with a few words to direct attention to the epistemological aspect of the latest development of natural philosophy and its bearing on general human problems. Notwithstanding the great separation between our different branches of knowledge, the new lesson which has been impressed upon physicists regarding the caution with which all usual conventions must be applied as soon as we are not concerned with everyday experience, may, indeed, be suited to remind us in a novel way of the dangers, well known to humanists, of judging from our own point of view cultures developed within other societies.
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BOHR, N. Natural Philosophy and Human Cultures*. Nature 143, 268–272 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143268a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143268a0
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