Capricious Cosmos

by Joe Rosen

Book Overview

A theoretical physicist offers a look at the cosmos from a metaphysical standpoint, discussing what science can and cannot tell human beings about orderless, lawless, and unexplainable parts of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0026049317
• ISBN13: 9780026049313
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Logical, honest and balanced

I wish I had this book when I was a kid dreaming of pursuing science. ( I have changed my mind while at University, put off by what seemed to me naked commercialism of science and her arrogance in presenting herself to society as a final arbiter of absolute truth). This book offers a very honest and balanced look at science. snippets from the book: "... It must be admitted, it seems to me, that from a purely logical standpoint solipsism is the only compelling metaphysical position among them all. Indeed, the reality to me of everything beyond my own existence is really based on arbitrary assumptions that I choose to make. For example, it is an assumption - perhaps, reasonable, maybe not, but nevertheless arbitrary - that my self is somehow inherently attached to a body. It is a further assumption that my body is equipped with sense organs that certain sensations I am aware of result from activity of those organs. Then it is also an assumption that the activity of my sense organs is a result of stimulation by some reality external to my body. And so on and so forth. Am I just imaging in that I am hitting imagined keys that bring these imagined words into imagined existence? " ... Thus we know that even if certain aspects of perceived reality can be assumed to five a literal description of objective reality, there are other aspects that do not. We know that science does not give us full comprehension and understanding of objective reality... The objective reality that science has led us to believe in is partially hidden from us... Science allows us a few clear glimpses of parts of it as well as provocative hints about more of it. Most of objective reality, however, will very likely remain inaccessible to humankind via science. .... Since, science does not, and most probably cannot, give us anything near full comprehension and understanding of objective reality, there seems no reason why other, nonscientific modes of comprehension and understanding should not afford us hints and clues to that reality. As long as objective reality, which science guides us to believe in, itself lies beyond the domain of science, lets us not shut ourselves off to the possibility that we might possess other channels to it. Indeed, why should not intuition, belief, feeling, art, music, and poetry be allowed to contribute whatever insight them might offer? Such modes of comprehension, as irrational and subjective as they are and perhaps even because of their irrationality and subjectivity, might complement, and thus strengthen, the contribution of science to our quest for objective reality."

A unique Cosmos from a Metaphysical Standpoint

"Materialistic ideology has subverted the study of biological and cosmological origins..., is not merely that science is being used illegitimately to promote a materialistic worldview, but that this worldview is actively undermining scientific inquiry, leading to incorrect and unsupported conclusions about biological and cosmological origins." Wm. Dembsky, on Uncommon Descent Metaphysics & Intelligent Design: Rosen makes clear that 'the metaphysical position of realism,' is that the order and laws of nature are existing 'out there,' not in the mind of the observer. Nature's order is manifested in quasi-isolated systems, in whom, laws of nature are manifested. He objects to science reducing nature in the analysis of their evolution into initial state (pp. 81). Stephen Hawking has stated once, "It is difficult to discuss the beginning of the universe without mentioning the concept of God. My work on the origin of the universe is on the borderline between science and religion, but I try to stay on the scientific side of the border. It is quite possible that God acts in ways that cannot be described by scientific laws, but in that case, one would just have to go by personal belief." The Rosen Paradox: Dr. Rosen, a theoretical physicist offers a view of the cosmos from a metaphysical standpoint, debating what science could offer human intellect on the mysterious, unexplainable areas of reality, contrasts science with metaphysical) concepts, which are beyond science. So Kirkus Reviews, is asking cosmologists, in sarcasm, not to abandon hope, recognizing that what they are about to hear from Rosen, a professor of physics, is not science but metaphysics. Since theories are scientific explanations of laws of the universe which is beyond science, a unique 'capricious' universe! The main issue shown here is that science has revealed that the quantum world can never be objectively realized: It remains hidden from our view. This is what Rosen meant to elaborate on through his own cosmology, which the Kirkus Reviews call "self-generating 'baby' universe concluding, "it does seem as if he's a man who wants his cakes and eats them, too." The Limits of Science: Erwin Schrodinger, after whom the most famous equation in science is named, believed that science has limits; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously. Toward the end of his career, he declared, "I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is very deficient. It gives us a lot of factual information, puts all of our experience in a magnificently consistent order but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us." Until a fateful meeting in San Francisco, when Hawking presented his ideas to some of the world's leading physicists,

A though provoking book

I read the Capricious Cosmos in my late teens in the 1980's and found it engaging and thought provoking. I think of it today many times but I can not remember all that was in it. Over a decade later I did a degree in physics and mathematics. I wonder how the Capricious Cosmos would read to me today. As an example, I browsed through Heinz Pages book titled Perfect Symmetry. I chuckled at myself regarding how I misinterpreted what he was saying when I read it in my late teens. There were sections on group theory and other concepts that had no meaning to me then but are clear now. During my undergradate studies in physics I also read Joe Rosens book "Symmetry in Science". It was an insightful book on how group theory can be used to do problem solving in science and it presented many of the group theoretic concepts better than many texts I have read. Joe Rosen is a physicist, mathematician and Jesuit Priest. I think his writings are very good and motivating despite me being an atheist.