Jacobsen, Anja Skaar: The Bohr-Rosenfeld Work on the Epistemology of Quantum Electrodynamics

The Bohr-Rosenfeld Work on the Epistemology of Quantum Electrodynamics

In this paper I will discuss the significance of the work by Niels Bohr and his young co-worker Léon Rosenfeld on the epistemological problem about the measurability of electromagnetic field quantities. Their work was published in two important papers, the first appeared in 1933 and the second came out in 1950. Apart from contextualising their work, in particular in relation to quantum epistemology in general at the time, I will attempt to characterise Bohr’s and Rosenfeld’s different roles in this collaboration and use it to say something more general about Bohr’s characteristic way of working.