David Bohm

David Joseph Bohm <a href="/facts/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society/cWs8TdC5">FRS</a> was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant <a href="/facts/Theoretical_physics/Cs2Y12rQ">theoretical</a> <a href="/facts/Physicist/cQcgvSIm">physicists</a> of the 20th century and who contributed unorthodox ideas to <a href="/facts/Quantum_mechanics/BRc3Mzgr">quantum theory</a>, <a href="/facts/Neuropsychology/eWY83ago">neuropsychology</a> and the <a href="/facts/Philosophy_of_mind/o6yNRjwd">philosophy of mind</a>. Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory known as <a href="/facts/De_Broglie%25E2%2580%2593Bohm_theory/NysDBVeq">De Broglie–Bohm theory</a>.
Bohm advanced the view that quantum physics meant that the old <a href="/facts/Dualism_(philosophy_of_mind)/IbrW6R7C">Cartesian model</a> of reality—that there are two kinds of substance, the mental and the physical, that somehow interact—was too limited. To complement it, he developed a mathematical and physical theory of <a href="/facts/Implicate_and_explicate_order/27sKcNcl">"implicate" and "explicate" order</a>. He also believed that the brain, at the cellular level, works according to the mathematics of some quantum effects, and postulated that thought is distributed and non-localised just as quantum entities are. Bohm's main concern was with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular as a coherent whole, which according to Bohm is never static or complete.
Bohm warned of the dangers of rampant reason and technology, advocating instead the need for genuine supportive dialogue, which he claimed could bridge and unify conflicting and troublesome divisions in the social world. In this, his <a href="/facts/Epistemology/NsDwpcYH">epistemology</a> mirrored his <a href="/facts/Ontology/QJKTsEIJ">ontology</a>.
Born in the United States, Bohm obtained his Ph.D. under <a href="/facts/J._Robert_Oppenheimer/qvgElLRC">J. Robert Oppenheimer</a> at the <a href="/facts/University_of_California%2c_Berkeley/MXVEjklr">University of California, Berkeley</a>. Due to his <a href="/facts/Communist/PkUwa9xK">Communist</a> affiliations, he was the subject of a federal government investigation in 1949, prompting him to leave the U.S. He pursued his career in several countries, becoming first a <a href="/facts/Brazil/QHkG46GL">Brazilian</a> and then a <a href="/facts/British_citizen/K6yEJXKz">British citizen</a>. He abandoned Marxism in the wake of the <a href="/facts/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956/Dtv12syC">Hungarian Uprising</a> in 1956.

David Bohm open-in-new

David Bohm