Doubt and Certainty: The Celebrated Academy : Debates on Science, Mysticism, Reality, in General on the Knowable and Unknowable, With Particular Forays into Such Esoteric

by Rothman, Tony; Sudarshan, George; Comins, Shannon K.; Sudarshan, E. C. G.

• ISBN13: 9780738201696
• ISBN10: 0738201693
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

When scientists and philosophers construct models to explain the phenomena and laws of nature, do those models simulate what's really out there in the world, or do they only represent the languages we use to describe the world? In this far-reaching, thought-provoking book, two world-class physicists from different worldsone born and raised in the West, the other in the Eastexamines some of the most profound questions ever to be investigated by science.Against the background of one of the most imaginative settings ever devised for a science booka fictional modern-day version of Plato's AcademyTony Rothman and George Sudarshan, along with an eclectic assortment of students and academics, delve deep into modern physics and Eastern philosophy, and come up with startling insights on the structure of the physical world. To gain these insights, the Academy members must tackle questions such as, How much of the millennium synthesis of science and philosophy is meaningful and how much is pure nonsense? Which New Age trends are compatible with physics? Can we learn anything from parallels between physics and Eastern philosophy?The common thread that runs through the debates is the tension between the seemingly opposite, but really complementary, notions of doubt and certainty: doubt that certain fields of science really succeed in describing the world versus the rock-solid certainty in the predictions of theories like Newton's mechanics and Einstein's relativity.In these intriguing, often funny, sometimes violent, but always stimulating debates, Rothman and Sudarshan cover a wide range of subjects, including cosmology, quantum mechanics, theology, mathematics, complexity, synchronicity, and the past and future.

Author Biography

Tony Rothman has written fiction, as well as several highly acclaimed science trade books, including A Physicist on Madison Avenue (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) and Instant Physics. He is professor of physics at Illinois Wesleyan University. George Sudarshan is the distinguished former director of the Center for Particle Theory at the University of Texas—Austin and the coauthor of three physics textbooks. Among his discoveries was the first theory of the weak nuclear force. Tony Rothman has written fiction, as well as several highly acclaimed science trade books, including A Physicist on Madison Avenue (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize) and Instant Physics. He is professor of physics at Illinois Wesleyan University. George Sudarshan is the distinguished former director of the Center for Particle Theory at the University of Texas—Austin and the coauthor of three physics textbooks. Among his discoveries was the first theory of the weak nuclear force.

Table of Contents

Preface: Knowledge and Wisdom	p. ix
Prologue: The Question	p. xv
Is The Universe Describable? Laws, Principles, Theories and Models	p. 1
Grounds for Debate	p. 1
"Zapomnyat" and "Zapomniec"; A Preliminary Contemplation on the True Nature of "Theory"	p. 2
The Transient Nature of All Things; The Preliminary Contemplation Continued	p. 4
The Metaphysics of Laws and Principles Is Briefly Described	p. 5
A Practical Exercise: Are Principles More Sacred Than Laws?	p. 8
The Confusion of Models with Reality	p. 11
Other Modes of Perception	p. 15
A True Story	p. 17
A Comparison of Meditative Experiences with Experimental Physics	p. 18
In Which the First Debates Are Summarized	p. 19
Is Nature Unreasonably Mathematical? Mathematics, Theories and Reality	p. 21
The Question	p. 21
The Conventional Wisdom of Physicists	p. 22
Is Mathematics Real?	p. 24
Is God a Mathematician? The Age of the Claim Is Revealed	p. 26
A Short Meditation on the Alliance Between Jungians and Physicsts	p. 29
A Contemplation: Does Physics Rediscover Preexisting Mathematics? Are There Mathematical Concepts Not Used in Physics?	p. 30
The Four Faces of Approximation	p. 34
The Degenerate Description of Reality	p. 36
Are There Physical Things That Mathematics Cannot Describe?	p. 39
A Practical Exercise: Is Music Unreasonably Mathematical?	p. 41
In Which the Second Debates Are Summarized	p. 43
Is the World Symmetrical? Friezes, Particles and Groups	p. 44
The Question	p. 44
Is There Symmetry in Art?	p. 45
Is There Truth in Beauty?	p. 48
A Short Discourse on the Mathematical Description of Beauty	p. 50
The Theoreticians Reveal the Symmetries of Particles	p. 52
The Symmetrists Show That the Symmetry of Forces Is No Different	p. 54
Unification Without Unification	p. 56
Countless Manifestations	p. 59
But Do Quarks Exist?	p. 60
Are the Laws of Nature Symmetric?	p. 61
Is Motion Symmetry?	p. 62
Symmetry Without Symmetry	p. 64
A Contemplation: Symmetry Is Asymmetry	p. 64
A Practical Exercise: Is Symmetry in the Eye of the Beholder?	p. 65
In Which the Third Debates Are Summarized	p. 67
Why Do Things Happen? Causality, Synchronicity and All That	p. 68
The Question	p. 68
Are There Causes? In Which Philosophers Befog One's Mind	p. 70
In Which Physicists Befog One's Mind	p. 72
Some Fraudulent Causes Are Unmasked	p. 75
An Argument on the Teleological Nature of the Action	p. 77
The Academicians Contemplate Action at a Distance	p. 80
The Attraction of Advanced Effects Leads the Academicians to Synchronicity	p. 82
What Is Synchronicity?	p. 85
What Does Synchronicity Have to Do with the East?	p. 87
Can Quantum Mechanics Explain Synchronicity?	p. 88
A Practical Exercise: Can Coincidences Be Computed?	p. 90
In Which the Fourth Debates Are Summarized	p. 92
Does Time Go Forward? Past and Future	p. 94
The Question	p. 94
In Which the Paradox Is Clarified	p. 95
Is Entropy Possible?	p. 97
Boltzmann's Solution Is Presented and Viciously Attacked	p. 98
The Never-ending Debate	p. 104
The Cosmological Solution Is Disputed	p. 106
The Gibbs Branch Reveals an Insidious Assumption	p. 110
The Thermodynamic Solution, Which Also Comes under Fire	p. 111
Does the Brussels Approach Explain Quantum Mechanics?	p. 114
The Other Arrows of Time Are Listed and Briefly Contemplated	p. 116
A Practical Exercise: Does Chaos Exist?	p. 118
Other Conceptions of Time Are Contrasted and Compared	p. 120
In Which the Fifth Debates Are Summarized	p. 124
Why Is There Left and Right? Chirality, Complexity and Emergent Properties	p. 126
The Question	p. 126
A Contemplation of the World's Handedness	p. 128
How Did It Happen?	p. 134
A Practical Exercise--Speculation Rampant	p. 141
Chirality Paves the Way for Complexity and Emergent Properties	p. 143
In Which the Sixth Debates Are Summarized	p. 151
Is the Universe Weird? Quantum Mechanics	p. 153
The Question	p. 153
Fin de Siecle Puzzles	p. 154
In Which the Quantum Nature of Light Is Revealed (Again)	p. 156
In Which the First of the Paradoxes Are Interpreted	p. 160
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle	p. 163
The Measurement Problem	p. 166
Is Quantum Mechanics Nonlocal?	p. 173
In Which the Meaning of Nonlocal Is Obscured	p. 180
A Practical Exercise--The Fractured Debate	p. 183
Universes Merge?	p. 185
In Which the Seventh Debates Are Summarized	p. 189
Is There an Answer? Theories of Everything	p. 191
The Question	p. 191
A Recontemplation on the Concept of Unification, and on Supersymmetry	p. 193
The Difficulties of Quantum Gravity Are Pondered	p. 198
A Meditation on String Theory, Its Success and Failures	p. 201
A Practical Exercise: The Reader and the Authors Contemplate String Theory	p. 205
The Discussion Widens into an Argument over the Point of Theories of Everything	p. 208
The Existence of Other Theories of Everything Is Revealed	p. 211
In Which the Eighth Debates Are Summarized	p. 212
How Did We Get Here? Cosmology	p. 214
General Relativity and the Standard Model	p. 214
The Question	p. 214
A Contemplation on the Meanings and Difficulties of Cosmology	p. 215
Before the Big Bang Is Reached, an Argument Erupts over General Relativity. Is Space Curved? And Other Matters	p. 219
Four Reasons to Believe the Big Bang	p. 227
The Standard Model Is Not the Universe	p. 230
A Perplexed Meditation on Two Celebrated Cosmological Conundrums	p. 233
Inflation, Quantum Cosmology and Quantum Theology	p. 237
In Which Inflation Is Described and Vigorously Debated	p. 237
At Last the Epoch of Quantum Gravity Is Reached and the Universe Is Created from Nothing	p. 246
A Practical Exercise: In Which the Authors Ponder the Nature of Time	p. 254
Meditation on Cosmologist-Theologians	p. 255
In Which the Ninth Debates Are Summarized	p. 262
What Do You Mean? Metaphors, Analogies, Culture Wars	p. 265
The Question	p. 265
A Stroll Through the Marketplace	p. 266
A Recent Controversy	p. 268
Are Metaphors from Science Valuable?	p. 271
The Use of Analogy Comes Under Inspection	p. 273
Is Science Relative?	p. 276
A Practical Exercise: Summarizing the Debates While Escping the Academy	p. 280
Supplemental Debate	p. 287
Can We Make Any Money Off This? Applied Quantum Mechanics	p. 287
The Question	p. 287
The Sphinx and the Cat	p. 287
Quantum Computation and Related Mysteries	p. 290
Commentaries on the Debates	p. 297
Index	p. 313
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