Pathways of Chance

by F. David Peat

F. David Peat is one of the most interesting and innovative thinkers around today. His latest book Pathways of Chance is a rich, inquiring and highly readable journey from the creative buzz of his native Liverpool in the sixties to a Native American talking circle. He meets some of the most fascinating minds of twentieth-century science and David Bohm, Roger Penrose, Bertrand Russell, Sir Michael Tippett, Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor. He reflects on the elusive nature of quantum reality, the way language shapes our lives, the world of the Blackfoot and his life in a medieval Italian village. Ultimately, Pathways of Chance, is a meditation upon the power of those twin forces, purpose and accident, within all our lives.

169 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2007

About the author

He has worked actively as a theoretical physicist in England and Canada.

But Peat's interests expanded to include psychology, particularly that of Carl Jung, art and general aspects of culture, including that of Native America. Peat is the author of many books including a biography of David Bohm, with whom Peat collaborated, books on quantum theory and chaos theory, as well as a study of Synchronicity. Since moving to the village of Pari in Italy, Peat has created the Pari Center for New Learning.

Reviews

[Jan Höglund · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an autobiography. This is also a book "about ideas." I found Peat's exploration of various scientific and philosophical themes at the end of each chapter particularly interesting.

[John Hooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can imagine that many people might think that the autobiography of a physicist could be dry reading : an academic life filled with conferences and mathematical formulae. But quantum physics is holistic and F. David Peat takes the reader on a very lively and entertaining spiritual journey. The paintings of Cezanne; Blackfoot Indian philosophy; C. G. Jung's synchronicity; filling a sleepy and tiny village in Tuscany with diverse and eccentric scholars, it's all in there and more. I was drawn to the book because of a few shared interests with its author and in reading it I came to a greater understanding of the connectedness of world views that can exist between people of very different backgrounds.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a marvellous book, wonderfully readable and covering so much ground. I enjoyed both the tales of David Peat's life as well as his essays on science, the weaving of the two I thought worked excellently. A must read for anyone with an inquiring mind!

[Lynn Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way this man thinks. A physicist who is also by nature a philosopher, he builds on information that has appeared in his previous books; and adds personal, autobiographical information in this one. He weaves the personal and the scientific together in alternate chapters like strands of DNA. It's delightful. And he finishes with suggestions for addressing the changes that we're experiencing on a personal and societal level.