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The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Realit
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eBay item number:157394729155
Item specifics
- Condition
- Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
- ISBN
- 9780593316306
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0593316304
ISBN-13
9780593316306
eBay Product ID (ePID)
7058374079
Product Key Features
Book Title
Rigor of Angels : Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Number of Pages
368 Pages
Language
English
Topic
Philosophers, Caribbean & Latin American, Individual Philosophers, General, Movements / Phenomenology, Literary, Science & Technology
Publication Year
2023
Genre
Literary Criticism, Philosophy, Biography & Autobiography
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1.5 in
Item Weight
22.9 Oz
Item Length
9.5 in
Item Width
6.6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2022-062201
Reviews
Praise for The Rigor of Angels "Humans are ambitious folk; we want to be able to know everything. But the world repeatedly confounds us with limitations on what can be known, and inescapable mediators between ourselves and the truth. William Egginton draws compelling connections between Borges, Kant, and Heisenberg, three of our most audacious theorists of limitation. We are left marveling at how much we are nevertheless able to capture of that elusive quarry called reality." --Sean Carroll, New York Times best-selling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion "This book brilliantly weaves together the core ideas of three of the greatest minds of Western literature, philosophy, and physics into a soul-searching narrative. Egginton masterfully illuminates the paradox of being human, of being caught between the search for the order behind things and the magic of the transcendent, of knowing that we are playthings in the hands of time, as our lives continually fork as we make choices and we become one self while imagining countless others." --Marcelo Gleiser, author of The Dawn of a Mindful Universe: A Manifesto for Humanity's Future "Physicists attempt to explain reality, poets provide our emotional response to it, and philosophers try to establish cerebral connections. All of these endeavors are plagued with uncertainty. Werner Heisenberg, Jorge Luis Borges, and Immanuel Kant struggled with this uncertainty throughout their entire lives. Egginton takes us on an illuminating journey through the fascinating labyrinth created by their intertwined intellectual paths." --Mario Livio, author of The Golden Ratio and Galileo and the Science Deniers
Dewey Edition
23
TitleLeading
The
Dewey Decimal
111
Table Of Content
Introduction: Where Did It Go? Wherein we meet our three protagonists and are introduced to the problem that unites them PART I. STANDING ON A SLIVER OF TIME 1. Unforgettable A man shows up in Moscow with an apparently flawless memory, and Borges writes a story pushing the idea to its extreme, touching on a paradox unearthed by Kant and explored by Heisenberg 2. A Brief History of This Very Instant Kant's struggle with Hume leads us back to ancient Greece, where we encounter a very "queer creature," the instant of change 3. Visualize This! Heisenberg discovers discontinuity at the heart of reality and defends his chunky model against Schrödinger's smooth waves PART II. NOT BEING GOD 4. Entanglements Citing special relativity, Einstein sides with Schrödinger, and they come up with a crazy thought experiment that turns the physics world on its head 5. Sub Specie Aeternitatis Back in Prussia, Kant asks what knowledge would be like for an omniscient being, and we are transported to the warring factions of early Christianity 6. In the Blink of an Eye Borges turns to the kabbalistic idea of the aleph to get over Norah, and finds new love while exploring the paradoxes of simultaneity PART III. DOES THE UNIVERSE HAVE AN EDGE? 7. The Universe (Which Others Call the Library) As his country flirts with fascism, Borges organizes the shelves of a municipal library he imagines to be without borders 8. Gravitas Heisenberg's conversations with Einstein reveal an underlying reconciliation between relativity and quantum mechanics in a vision of the cosmos foreseen by Dante 9. Made to Measure Kant writes his third and final "Critique," and his notion of beauty paves the way for an understanding of what guides inquiry in the physical sciences PART IV. THE ABYSS OF FREEDOM 10. Free Will Kant's search for free will in a deterministic cosmos conjures the Roman patrician Boethius, who salvages freedom from fate while awaiting execution for treason in a dungeon in Pavia 11. Forking Paths The physicist Hugh Everett has the wild idea that new universes are birthed continuously, and Borges explores the same idea in a spy story 12. Putting the Demon to Rest Heisenberg defends his decisions during the war, as we consider what his discovery meant for questions of free will and determinism Postscript Wherein we see how Borges, Kant, and Heisenberg, each in his own way, worked to undermine the e_ects of metaphysical prejudice Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Synopsis
A poet, a physicist, and a philosopher explored the greatest enigmas in the universe-the nature of free will, the strange fabric of the cosmos, the true limits of the mind-and each in their own way uncovered a revelatory truth about our place in the world Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth-that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn't exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm's absurdity when he had his own epiphany-that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality. Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant pushed the assumptions of human reason to their mind-bending conclusions, but emerged with an idea that crowned a towering philosophical system-that the human mind has fundamental limits, and those limits undergird both our greatest achievements as well as our missteps. Through fiction, science, and philosophy, the work of these three thinkers coalesced around the powerful, haunting fact that there is an irreconcilable difference between reality "out there" and reality as we experience it. Out of this profound truth comes a multitude of galvanizing ideas- the notion of selfhood, free will, and purpose in human life; the roots of morality, aesthetics, and reason; and the origins and nature of the cosmos itself. As each of these thinkers shows, every one of us has a fundamentally incomplete picture of the world. But this is to be expected. Only as mortal, finite beings are we able to experience the world in all its richness and breathtaking majesty. We are stranded in a gulf of vast extremes, between the astronomical and the quantum, an abyss of freedom and absolute determinism, and it is in that center where we must make our home. A soaring and lucid reflection on the lives and work of Borges, Heisenberg, and Kant, The Rigor of Angels movingly demonstrates that the mysteries of our place in the world may always loom over us-not as a threat, but as a reminder of our humble humanity., A NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - A poet, a physicist, and a philosopher explored the greatest enigmas in the universe--the nature of free will, the strange fabric of the cosmos, the true limits of the mind--and each in their own way uncovered a revelatory truth about our place in the world "[A] mind-expanding book. . . . Elegantly written." -- The New York Times "A remarkable synthesis of the thoughts, ideas, and discoveries of three of the greatest minds that our species has produced." --John Banville, The Wall Street Journal Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth--that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn't exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm's absurdity when he had his own epiphany--that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality. Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant pushed the assumptions of human reason to their mind-bending conclusions, but emerged with an idea that crowned a towering philosophical system--that the human mind has fundamental limits, and those limits undergird both our greatest achievements as well as our missteps. Through fiction, science, and philosophy, the work of these three thinkers coalesced around the powerful, haunting fact that there is an irreconcilable difference between reality "out there" and reality as we experience it. Out of this profound truth comes a multitude of galvanizing ideas: the notion of selfhood, free will, and purpose in human life; the roots of morality, aesthetics, and reason; and the origins and nature of the cosmos itself. As each of these thinkers shows, every one of us has an incomplete picture of the world. But it's only as mortal, finite beings are we able to experience the world in its richness and breathtaking majesty. A soaring and lucid reflection on the lives and work of Borges, Heisenberg, and Kant, The Rigor of Angels movingly demonstrates that the mysteries of our place in the world may always loom over us--not as a threat, but as a reminder of our humble humanity.
LC Classification Number
BD331.E423 2023
Item description from the seller
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- 6***6 (108)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseReceived the new book and it's much more than just as described. I enjoy reading the book so much that I can't put it down. The purchase price was good and the shipping cost was very reasonable. The new book was packaged in a bubble wrap shipping bag for protection and it arrived very fast. This Seller is AAA+++++ I would recommend them to anyone. Thank You Very Much!!!
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