"The Tao of Physics" by Fritjov Capra
"The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukav
These two books, both of which have been out for some years, present fascinating speculations regarding the “new physics”; the revolutionary insights provided by theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.
For those of us who haven’t been educationally immersed in the mathematical and conceptual intricacies of the mother science, these twentieth century views are so far afield from our ordinary ways of looking at the world and the universe as to appear irrational, illogical, and verging on the metaphysical.
Both books have common threads, in my opinion, in attributing our difficulties in comprehending the new theoretical positions to our cultural conditioning in Western styles of thought – linear association, cause and effect relationism, inclination to see things in discrete, either-or ways, and tendencies to analyze rather than integrate. Further, both books point to a correspondence between modern ideas in physics and the ancient philosophies of the East. As in much Eastern thought, one core notion as best I can determine, is that everything is connected and must be seen holistically and as a cosmic unity.
For those of us who haven’t been educationally immersed in the mathematical and conceptual intricacies of the mother science, these twentieth century views are so far afield from our ordinary ways of looking at the world and the universe as to appear irrational, illogical, and verging on the metaphysical.
Both books have common threads, in my opinion, in attributing our difficulties in comprehending the new theoretical positions to our cultural conditioning in Western styles of thought – linear association, cause and effect relationism, inclination to see things in discrete, either-or ways, and tendencies to analyze rather than integrate. Further, both books point to a correspondence between modern ideas in physics and the ancient philosophies of the East. As in much Eastern thought, one core notion as best I can determine, is that everything is connected and must be seen holistically and as a cosmic unity.
The texts are readable and free from the mathematical esoterica of academic physics, but, at least for me, leave one with a sense of wonder and awe.
Reviewed by Ken West
Reviewed by Ken West
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