Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature

By Peter Pesic

Book Overview

The separateness and connection of individuals is perhaps the central question of human life: What, exactly, is my individuality? To what degree is it unique? To what degree can it be shared, and how? To the many philosophical and literary speculations about these topics over time, modern science has added the curious twist of quantum theory, which requires that the elementary particles of which everything consists have no individuality at all. All aspects of chemistry depend on this lack of individuality, as do many branches of physics. From where, then, does our individuality come?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262162059
• ISBN13: 9780262162050
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A wedding of two regretfully estranged worlds

For those new to science, or for those who have little experience with quantum physics, "Seeing Double," by Dr. Pesic, will serve as a wonderful introduction to quantum physics, a field that was the most spectacular and influential to the 20th century. The book provides a historical overview that is elucidated by references and parallels to examples from the classics and humanities. For the seasoned physicist, "Seeing Double" will be a refreshing departure from rigorous scientific reading, which aims at being specialized, focused, and forensically convincing. Instead of choosing one very specialized point and thoroughly pursuing its depth, Pesic's writing courses broadly, like lightening across water, discovering a multitude of connections to the classics and humanities. Like Goethe's biological poetry and Schrödinger's "What is Life?" Pesic does a wonderful job of wedding his work to broader academic disciplines. One of the great misfortunes of the rise of science in the 20th century has been its separation from other academic disciplines, such as the humanities. This separation runs contrary to the nature of human thought. This work is an encouraging victory in the reunification between the sciences and humanities. Pesic's writing is conversational. The reader feels as if he is in an arm-chair, an arm's length away, in a tea-infused discussion. One feels in reading Pesic that he has put the responsibility of being understood on the writer, and not the reader.Although less broad than "Labyrinth," which explained modern scientific method by tracing its ancestors in law and code-breaking, nonetheless "Seeing Double" makes a wide variety of far-reaching yet just connections to other fields that are usually regretfully kept apart from science. The overall effect is quite exciting. Like Aladdin's carpet, or swift-footed Hermes, Pesic will take you on an exhilarating journey across the vista of the history of human achievement.