Does anyone know what motivated this quote from Wheeler?

[davidbenari]

You can talk about people like Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Confucius, but the thing that convinced me that such people existed were the conversations with Bohr.
About his time working with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen.

http://www.todayinsci.com/W/Wheeler_John/WheelerJohn-Quotations.htm

I find this quote quite amusing. Does anyone know what motivated it? Or has a good theory about what motivated it?

 

[Danger]

I have no idea, since I wasn't privy to the conversations. There has never been much doubt that they existed as historical figures. If he referred to attributing some sort of supernatural status to them, it's anybody's guess why someone would do that. I can't imagine a serious scientist embracing the concept.

 

[davidbenari]

Wasn't Bohr "too philosophical" ? The wiki entry on him makes several references to some sort of fascination of his for philosophy. For example, in his love of Kierkegaard.

 

[Danger]

Wasn't Bohr "too philosophical" ? The wiki entry on him makes several references to some sort of fascination of his for philosophy. For example, in his love of Kierkegaard.

Oh... that's disappointing... :(

 

[davidbenari]

Lol. Why?

 

[Danger]

Lol. Why?

I can't actually answer that under Forum guidelines, since it would involve a discussion of "religion". Leave it suffice to be said that I've always taken there to be a difference between philosophy and superstition. Before the term "science" existed, the field of study was called "natural philosophy".

 

[dipole]

What he may be saying is that Bohr was a man of such great intellect that after speaking to him it made it seem plausible that other legendary like him actually existed.

Or he may be referring to people who were absolutely dedicated to one kind of thinking/philosophy.