Nature Loves to Hide: Quantum Physics and Reality, a Western Perspective

by Shimon Malin

Book Overview

The strangeness of modern physics has sparked several popular books--such as The Tao of Physics--that explore its affinity with Eastern mysticism. But the founders of quantum mechanics were educated in the classical traditions of Western civilization and Western philosophy. 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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195138945
• ISBN13: 9780195138948
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Physics, Philosophy, and Meaning

This is an excellent book on the interface of science and philosophy. Ever since Capra's immensely successful 'The Tao of Physics', there has been widespread interest in the connections between modern theoretical physics and eastern religion. While opening many minds to a deeper sense of spirituality, this also may have helped to close many minds to the possibilities of a genuine Western spirituality. In this fascinating and readable book, Professor Malin succeeds in two important respects: First, through his clear exposition, and the use of charming dialogues, he brings the challenging and mind-altering ideas of modern physics within the reach of just about anyone. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, he has contributed to the reinvigoration of our Western philosophical tradition by bringing the ideas of Plato, Plotinus, and Whitehead, among others, back into the forefront, and he has shown how these great thinkers have foreseen our contemporary scientific achievements, and can imbue them with sense and meaning.

Nature Loves to Hide: Quantum Physics and Reality, ...

This book is a magnificent gem of thoughtfulness and connectivity. The clarity of the author's presentation has been of enormous help to me in my investigations into the nature of reality.The author, a first rate Quantum Theorist and Cosmologist, presents the thinking of the great scientists of the 20th century, such as Niels Bohr, Erwin Schroedinger, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, P.A.M. Dirac, and others in a clear and concise way accessible to all thinking individuals. His expositions and ideas deal with the central challenges of human investigations into the nature of reality as questioned by these great scientists. He wonderfully describes the famous Bohr-Einstein debates, the principle of objectivation stated by Schroedinger, the thinking of Dirac and Heisenberg. Dr. Malin elucidates Bell's theorem and its implications by the use of himself, Peter, and Julie all characters in this book who actually help to clarify many of the fine points.Dr. Malin states that Quantum Mechanics provides a vital hint as to the nature of reality in its description of quantum collapse. In one of several examples Dr. Malin indicates that the release of an electron from one end of a cathode ray tube and its arrival at the other end - the screen - is a complex process in quantum physics. It is inaccurate to be speak of the electron's trajectory, since the electron is really an infinite field of potential wave functions in the intervening space, each with respective probabilities of appearing at a point on the screen. Of all these potential wave functions only one will become actual - the quantum collapse or the appearance of the electron at a definte spot on the screen. What or who chooses which actuality occurs is the question Dr. Malin asked Dirac. Dirac answered: "Nature chooses." Here begins Dr. Malin's deeper search into the presence of intelligence behind the visible world. Dr. Malin cites Plato's Timaeus, the fourth century Platonic philosopher Plotinus's Enneads, and the modern philosopher A. N. Whitehead's writings as sources for his view of reality. His reasoning is compelling.I find myself reading and rereading this book and recommend it for those who sense that there is more to the world we see and sense.

Wanted Dead or Alive

Wanted Dead or Alive.It has taken me many months to read Professor Malin's book, `Nature Loves to Hide.'. As an interested layman I am fascinated by the whole question of the `Unified Field Theory' that is the Holy Grail of modern physics. Will this happen in my lifetime? What will it mean to our worldview? There are some very fundamental principles and difficult concepts presented in this wonderful book. What is reality? Can anything propagate faster than light? Is the universe alive? What role do we humans play? The very concept of Quantum Mechanics is baffling. Electrons, one of those elemental particles that are the stuff of which we are made---do not exist! They are fields of possibilities, predictable by wave equations but nevertheless are only real when observed, when the quantum state collapses. This book asks one to 'contemplate' some pretty heady concepts... somethings do travel faster than light, real objects do not exist, at least not in the way that we normally think, experience is part of the equation of existence, the universe is alive and not just dead cold matter. Our age has been called the age of materialism, Hegel wrote at the turn of the last century that the ultimate conclusion of materialism is war, the mass production of goods for their own destruction. Science as the `new religion' has not changed human nature. We have not `advanced' as planetary beings and learned from our mistakes. Professor Malin quotes Einstein, `The theory determines the observation.' If modern scientific theory is based on a materialistic principle that denudes science of humans (objectivation), is it any wonder that we produce inhuman results; war, famine, greed etc. This is not the conclusion of the author but the conclusion that comes to me as a result of reading this book.The above is a personal reflection that came unexpectedly as I was writing this review of a book that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Whether as a quantum state collapsing or ` a throb of experience' I will now have to go and `contemplate' and if Professor Malin is correct I will be fulfilling a fundamental role as a participant in this evolving universe.One last thought, with or without the new paradigm presented in this book, that the universe is in fact a living being, it is the burning question of our day that we all want to know the fundamental nature of the universe. A variant on the old western posters. The Nature of the Universe. Wanted Dead or Alive.

the lyric universe

After reading "Nature Loves to Hide" I hardly know where to start -- except to say the experience of reading this book has been life-changing, an amazing, brightly illuminating experience. Shimon Malin's book is the first to allow me (a poet/essayist) entry to unfamiliar subjects in an unexpectedly familiar way; I found myself saying "yes! I've thought this, and this!" again and again -- a tribute to Malin's ability to show us what we didn't know we knew. "Nature . . ." has also allowed me to use the props of my own (lyrical) worldview to move through the far-ranging scientific theory presented -- as well as to review again, through a fresh, sharp lens much of "Western" Philosophy.I was rewarded again and again by Malin's rich and lucid prose and by his fictional characters Julie and Peter, and their all-too-human thrashing about in theoretical/philosophical realms. They were far more than "delightful" as the dust-jacket notes -- they were thoroughly palpable as creations of mind and voice -- and thus, their struggles to comprehend were believable and poignant. This is a truly astonishing work and one that I wholly recommend to anyone -- and especially to any non-physicist.

More than just physics...

This is one of the best books I've read lately. It not only does a great job of elucidating some of the difficult concepts in quantum theory; it also reveals the assumptions upon which our current science is based--and the limitations inherent in those assumptions.I disagree with the Publisher's Weekly reviewer who calls the imagined conversations between the astronauts "silly." That might be the case for someone who is completely familiar with the intricacies of physics, but they were useful to a layperson who is interested in understanding more.I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand the basics of modern physics, and who also wants to consider some compelling philosophical implications of these new discoveries.