The Complementarity Principle of Niels Bohr in the Context of the Development of Epistemology

This paper considers the complementarity principle of Niels Bohr from an epistemological point of view. The main purpose of the research is to establish the place of the complementarity principle in the context of the development of epistemology. Another broader task, implicitly posed in this paper, is to identify a deep relationship and mutual influence between physics and philosophy in a single case of the complementarity concept. The paper traces the origins of the complementarity concept both from the side of physics and from the side of philosophy. The first part of the paper considers the formulation, content, and epistemological consequences of the complementarity concept. It is argued that the concept can be recognized as a general methodological principle. Then it is given a brief overview of the types of scientific rationality and established the belonging of the complementarity concept to the non-classical type of rationality. The last part of the paper proposes two hypotheses about the path of development of epistemology, which allows establishing the place of the concept of complementarity in the context of the development of epistemology in a slightly different way. The results of the study suggest that due to the fundamental novelty and radical break with the previous way of thinking, the idea of complementarity still contains unrealized opportunities for solving general problems of knowledge.