Nature loves to hide : quantum physics and reality, a western perspective / Shimon Malin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Malin, Shimon, 1937-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantum theory--Philosophy.

Quantum theory.

Nuclear physics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (305 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2003, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Nature Loves to Hide, physicist Shimon Malin takes readers on a fascinating tour of quantum theory--one that turns to Western philosophical thought to clarify this strange yet inescapable description of the nature of reality. Malin translates quantum mechanics into plain English, explaining its origins and workings against the backdrop of the famous debate between Niels Bohr and the skeptical Albert Einstein. Then he moves on to build a philosophical framework that can account for the quantum nature of reality. He draws out the linkage between the concepts of Neoplatonism and the more recent process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Writing with broad humanistic insight and deep knowledge of science, and using delightful conversation with fictional astronauts Peter and Julie to explain more difficult concepts, Shimon Malin offers a profound new understanding of the nature of reality--one that shows a deep continuity with aspects of our Western philosophical tradition going back 2,500 years, and that feels more deeply satisfying, and truer, than the clockwork universe of Newton.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE: The Quandary

1. Mach's Shadow

2. Einstein's Dilemma

3. The Call of Complementarity

4. Waves of Nothingness

5. Paul Dirac and the Spin of the Electron

6. An Irresistible Force Meets an Immovable Rock

7. "Nature Loves to Hide

PART TWO: From a Universe of Objects to a Universe of Experiences

8. The Elusive Obvious

9. Objectivation

10. In and Out of Space and Time

11. "Nature Makes a Choice

12. Nature Alive

13. Flashes of Existence

14. The Expression of Knowledge

15. A Universe of Experience

16. The Potential and the Actual

PART THREE: Physics and the One

17. Levels of Being

18. Our Place in the Universe

19. Physics and the One

Epilogue

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-275) and index.

ISBN:

9786610838059

1-280-83805-1

0-19-803178-5

OCLC:

327967743