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Find books by Wolfgang
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An important
book for the Classical
Realist...
Born in 1930, Wolfgang Smith graduated
from Cornell University in 1948, with
majors in physics, philosophy and
mathematics. After taking an M.S. in
physics at Purdue University, he joined
Bell Aircraft Corporation, where he became
interested in the effect of a foreign gas
on aerodynamic heating. His papers on
diffusion fields...provided the
theoretical key to the solution of the
re-entry problem for space flight.
After receiving a Ph.D. in mathematics
from Columbia University, Dr. Smith held
faculty positions at M.I.T., U.C.L.A., and
Oregon State University, where he has been
Professor of Mathematics since 1968. He
has pursued research and published
extensively in the areas of Lorentz
geometry, partial differential equations,
realtivistic cosmology, and differential
topology.
In addition, Dr. Smith has published
two previous books and numerous articles
dealing with foundational and
interdisciplinary problems. He has been
especially concerned with what he terms
'the sharp yet oft-overlooked distinction
between scientific knowledge and
scientistic beliefs,' and has done much to
unmask erroneous and deleterious
conceptions widely accepted today as
scientific truths.
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 The
Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden
Key
Click Here for a
book review of The Quantum Enigma:
Finding the Hidden Key, by Wolfgang
Smith.
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Also by Wolfgang Smith
Cosmos and
Transcendence: Breaking Through the
Barrier of Scientistic
Belief
and
Teilhardism
and the New Religion: A Thorough Analysis
of the Teachings of Pierre Teilhard De
Chardin
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The Quantum Enigma: Finding the
Hidden Key, by Wolfgang Smith,
Sherwood Sugden and Company, 1995.
Reviewed by Marilyn Prever
If you've ever lain awake worrying with
Einstein about whether Heisenberg's
uncertainty principle really means that
"God plays dice," and fallen asleep only
to dream you're playing quantum billiards
with Gamow's Mr. Tompkins; if
Schroedinger's cat and Bell's theorem make
you cry out for philosophical
intelligibility amid the paradoxes of
modern physics; if the double slit
experiment gives you the heebie-jeebies
and you're temperamentally incapable of
being content with Feynman's little arrows
without trying to find out what they mean;
and above all if you rejoice to see modern
physicists vindicating William Blake's
intuition that "the atoms of Democritus
and Newton's particles of light" were not
the last word on material reality, but you
would like to see them replaced with
something more rigorous than poetry…I
have a book for you.
Wolfgang Smith, the author of The
Quantum Enigma, is a research
mathematician and lifelong student of
philosophy. Of all the books I've read
that were written for laymen trying to
make sense of the quantum revolution in
physics, his is the only one written by
someone trained in philosophy as well as
physics and mathematics.
But be warned: though it's "written as
much for the general or 'non-mathematical'
reader as for the interested physicist"
and though the author has "taken pains not
to presuppose any technical knowledge of
physics" and carefully explains the
philosophical terms he introduces, this is
not an easy book. The truth is, I would be
flattering myself to say I understood half
of it even after many readings. But it is
the kind of book you can keep coming back
to, getting more light at each
reading.
Smith's thesis is that all the attempts
to make philosophic sense of the "quantum
reality problem" have been dogged by the
same ontological assumption: the idea of
Cartesian "bifurcation," a habit of
thought so pervasive that even Heisenberg,
who recognized it as an error, was not
free from it. Once this fallacy is brought
out into the open and refuted, says Smith,
"the pieces of the quantum puzzle begin to
fall into place." Moreover (and this is
the exciting part) we discover that the
new physics actually bears witness to some
old and forgotten ontological truths going
back to Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas,
which have been out of fashion since the
Renaissance and have been practically
expunged from popular consciousness ever
since admiration for the scientific genius
of Newton dragged along with it an
acceptance of his dubious metaphysics.
In the course of working out his
ambitious program of refuting the
erroneous axiom, replacing it, and showing
us what the new physics looks like in the
light of the perennial philosophy,
Professor Smith takes us on a journey
through the philosophy and methodology of
science; makes some critical distinctions
about the act of perception (which "is and
remains a marvel -- seeing that the apple
is outside of us and we perceive it
nonetheless" ); explores the meaning of
the indeterminacy (or apparent
indeterminacy) of the microworld (does
Aristotle's concept of potency provide a
key?); shows us the necessity of
recovering hylomorphism in order to make
sense of the natural world; finds an
intriguing answer to whether God plays
dice (I won't give it away); shows why the
"Big Bang" is not what you thought it was;
and introduces some profound and delicate
insights on space-time and creation from
both Thomist and Oriental thought.
There is an appendix on quantum theory
for those with a background in
mathematics, a brief but helpful glossary,
and an index of names.
On a personal note, I would like to add
that on reading this book, a shadow passed
from my mind. I believe it was the shadow
of a false and constricting metaphysics
masquerading as science, the same darkness
that has lain like a spell on the Western
world these last centuries, obscuring the
traditional wisdom that could provide the
only worldview wide enough to encompass
the marvelous discoveries of modern
science.
Claremont, NH
January 14, 2002
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