What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crisis in Physics
Caudwell’s controversial book offers an astute and enduring diagnosis of the maladies of bourgeois epistemology.
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1939
10 people are currently reading
218 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Caudwell
34 books25 followersChristopher Caudwell is the pseudonym of Christopher St. John Sprigg a British Marxist writer, thinker and poet.
He was born into a Roman Catholic family, resident at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney. He was educated at the Benedictine Ealing Priory School, but left school at the age of 15 after his father, Stanhope Sprigg, lost his job as literary editor of the Daily Express. Caudwell moved with his father to Bradford and began work as a reporter for the Yorkshire Observer. He made his way to Marxism and set about rethinking everything in light of it, from poetry to philosophy to physics, later joining the Communist Party of Great Britain in Poplar, London.
In December 1936 he drove an ambulance to Spain and joined the International Brigades there, training as a machine-gunner at Albacete before becoming a machine-gun instructor and group political delegate. He edited a wall newspaper.
He was killed in action on 12 February 1937, the first day of the Battle of the Jarama Valley. His brother, Theodore, had attempted to have Caudwell recalled by the Communist Party of Great Britain by showing its General Secretary, Harry Pollitt, the proofs of Caudwell's book Illusion and Reality. Caudwell's Marxist works were published posthumously. The first was Illusion and Reality (1937), an analysis of poetry.
Caudwell published widely, writing criticism, poetry, short stories and novels. Much of his work was published posthumously.
He was born into a Roman Catholic family, resident at 53 Montserrat Road, Putney. He was educated at the Benedictine Ealing Priory School, but left school at the age of 15 after his father, Stanhope Sprigg, lost his job as literary editor of the Daily Express. Caudwell moved with his father to Bradford and began work as a reporter for the Yorkshire Observer. He made his way to Marxism and set about rethinking everything in light of it, from poetry to philosophy to physics, later joining the Communist Party of Great Britain in Poplar, London.
In December 1936 he drove an ambulance to Spain and joined the International Brigades there, training as a machine-gunner at Albacete before becoming a machine-gun instructor and group political delegate. He edited a wall newspaper.
He was killed in action on 12 February 1937, the first day of the Battle of the Jarama Valley. His brother, Theodore, had attempted to have Caudwell recalled by the Communist Party of Great Britain by showing its General Secretary, Harry Pollitt, the proofs of Caudwell's book Illusion and Reality. Caudwell's Marxist works were published posthumously. The first was Illusion and Reality (1937), an analysis of poetry.
Caudwell published widely, writing criticism, poetry, short stories and novels. Much of his work was published posthumously.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 19, 2019
Excellent though it suffers from being unfinished- the final six chapters are in rough draft, and though the concluding chapter is astonishingly powerful, some of the previous are lacking cohesion, almost prompts or ideas to be fleshed out later. I reccomend skimming through to the final chapter on determinism and causality and returning to these unfinished notes, as this will unify what initially appears to be disparate thoughts.
Caudwell was writing as quantum mechanics clashed with the theory of general relativity. This crisis of which he writes touches on vast number of issues (determinism vs. free will, probability vs predictability, idealism vs. materialism) which remain to this day. Caudwell argues that this crisis stems from the division in our society between the subject and the object; or if you like, the private and the public. To understand that the two are intimately involved undermines our society's dominating idea that ownership goes one way: that one can percieve, and affect, and may not be affected in return. In physics, this creates a dualism when, for example, concieving of electrons when they behave both as waves and as particles, and either as wave or particle in the case of an observer. It is only natural that one may then come away thinking either that the universe is all in the eye of the beholder, or that we percieve it all from the outside, no matter the theoretical incoherence this produces. That we are still unable to reconcile quantum physics with relativity, 80 years after this work was published, demonstrates I think Caudwell's point that the problem is external to physics.
I found the book's subject matter easy enough to engage with. I'm not a physicist, though I do have an amateur's enthusiasm for the topic and I did a bit of google research on the side to contextualise some presented debates, which assisted with the process. Somewhat more of a barrier was the writing style! It's funny that apparently he's referred to as England's Gramsci (however reductive that comparison may be); while I suppose this is a reference to Caudwell's topics of choice being superstructural (art, science, poetry), Caudwell also occasionally shares the allusive, dialogic writing style of Gramsci, honestly adopting the position of his invisible opponents before not quite opposing them, but overcoming them. It can be a little hard to follow. Not only that, but both authors were killed by fascists, and their work shows the fractures. It's not quite as tough a read as all that, and enormously valuable besides- I can tell I'll be referring back to it in future. A "quarry of ideas" indeed!
Caudwell was writing as quantum mechanics clashed with the theory of general relativity. This crisis of which he writes touches on vast number of issues (determinism vs. free will, probability vs predictability, idealism vs. materialism) which remain to this day. Caudwell argues that this crisis stems from the division in our society between the subject and the object; or if you like, the private and the public. To understand that the two are intimately involved undermines our society's dominating idea that ownership goes one way: that one can percieve, and affect, and may not be affected in return. In physics, this creates a dualism when, for example, concieving of electrons when they behave both as waves and as particles, and either as wave or particle in the case of an observer. It is only natural that one may then come away thinking either that the universe is all in the eye of the beholder, or that we percieve it all from the outside, no matter the theoretical incoherence this produces. That we are still unable to reconcile quantum physics with relativity, 80 years after this work was published, demonstrates I think Caudwell's point that the problem is external to physics.
I found the book's subject matter easy enough to engage with. I'm not a physicist, though I do have an amateur's enthusiasm for the topic and I did a bit of google research on the side to contextualise some presented debates, which assisted with the process. Somewhat more of a barrier was the writing style! It's funny that apparently he's referred to as England's Gramsci (however reductive that comparison may be); while I suppose this is a reference to Caudwell's topics of choice being superstructural (art, science, poetry), Caudwell also occasionally shares the allusive, dialogic writing style of Gramsci, honestly adopting the position of his invisible opponents before not quite opposing them, but overcoming them. It can be a little hard to follow. Not only that, but both authors were killed by fascists, and their work shows the fractures. It's not quite as tough a read as all that, and enormously valuable besides- I can tell I'll be referring back to it in future. A "quarry of ideas" indeed!
March 26, 2025
There were parts of this book I couldn’t fully grasp because I don’t have an extensive knowledge of physics (or the conflicting theories from the time period). However, many parts of this book made me feel like that meme which is the sequence of expanding [blue] brains.
I would say that this book is overall a study in dialectics, or to put it another way, the relationship between the subject and the object.
Caudwell lays out a rigorous argument for why the crisis in physics (at the time) was less of a crisis in physics itself, than it was in a crisis in the categories of understanding that had been produced by [bourgeois] class society up to that point in time.
Capitalism (i.e., private property, class division, commodity production, and alienated labour) resulted in a cleavage in subject-object relation, which influenced our theories about the natural world including the field of physics. This meant that instead of thinking about the world dialectically, our rigid categories (or “domains”) of understanding were unable to adequately incorporate the advancements being made in physics at the time.
This meant that society had to either revolutionize its entire way of thinking about the world, and transcend our existing categories of understanding, or disregard the advancements in physics entirely.
I would say that this book is overall a study in dialectics, or to put it another way, the relationship between the subject and the object.
Caudwell lays out a rigorous argument for why the crisis in physics (at the time) was less of a crisis in physics itself, than it was in a crisis in the categories of understanding that had been produced by [bourgeois] class society up to that point in time.
Capitalism (i.e., private property, class division, commodity production, and alienated labour) resulted in a cleavage in subject-object relation, which influenced our theories about the natural world including the field of physics. This meant that instead of thinking about the world dialectically, our rigid categories (or “domains”) of understanding were unable to adequately incorporate the advancements being made in physics at the time.
This meant that society had to either revolutionize its entire way of thinking about the world, and transcend our existing categories of understanding, or disregard the advancements in physics entirely.
June 10, 2022
Thought provoking. Bourgeoisies physics vs proletariat physics, mechanical materialism vs dialectic materialism. Eddington, Genes, Schroedinger created quantum physics to verify bourgeoisies free will. But bourgeoisies is not free, bourgeoisies is the slave of machine and modes of production as like the proletariat. Man is not free, man is result of the modes of production. Man is the slave of modes of production. Bourgeoisies physics denies the dialectic truth that man is the matter himself and part of matter and materialistic world and cosmos is constantly changing and it’s possible to change the cosmos through practice. True freedom lies in practice. Practice is the only freedom. Proletariat has to gather perceptual knowledge from experience, then proletariat has to transform that perceptual knowledge into rationale knowledge, then proletariat has to apply both perceptual knowledge and rationale knowledge into revolutionary practice to change the objective cosmos and the relationship between the proletariat and the objective cosmos. To know the cosmos proletariat has to participate in the revolutionary practice to change the cosmos. Denying dialectic materialism is pivotal bourgeoisies crisis of physics. Bourgeoisies physics vs dialectic physics. The bourgeoisies crisis in physics is the part of bourgeoisies crisis of bourgeoisies economics and bourgeoisies society, which will be resolved by the proletariat revolution, the emergence of proletariat economics and proletariat society, the proletariat physics and dialectic physics. The emergence of dialectic physics, dialectic outlook, dialectic science can eliminate the present bourgeoisies crisis in physics.
June 8, 2018
This book sets up some important ideas, the limitation of generalised thought in Physics, the failures to recognise wholistic relations between subject and object, and the collapse of experimentation into arbitrary mathematics. It is also vital in trying to connect this to bourgeois economy. While the connection is sometimes difficult to follow, the book is a good read
February 21, 2024
Hugely impressive and inspiring for the everyperson that this book was written, even if it remains unfinished. Caudwell's background and age at the time of writing this piece prefigures socialist education and philosophy in a very tantalizing way.
While this book is very much of its time, with its optimism about the inevitability of communism and its faith in the so-called "proletarian worldview", it is still stunningly prophetic that this book is still relevant, and that Caudwell had the knowhow to make this intervention in the first place. Science needs philosophy to fulfill its promise of ever-greater understanding of the natural world, and Caudwell's thoughts on the subject/object divide are a massive step in the right direction for building that philosophy on the basis of a classless society. Very applicable to just about any sphere of study - from physics to ecology to culture.
While this book is very much of its time, with its optimism about the inevitability of communism and its faith in the so-called "proletarian worldview", it is still stunningly prophetic that this book is still relevant, and that Caudwell had the knowhow to make this intervention in the first place. Science needs philosophy to fulfill its promise of ever-greater understanding of the natural world, and Caudwell's thoughts on the subject/object divide are a massive step in the right direction for building that philosophy on the basis of a classless society. Very applicable to just about any sphere of study - from physics to ecology to culture.
July 8, 2020
Interesting, but not as clearly written as I would like. It feels like you notice that it was left in an unfinished state when the author left to join the Spanish Civil War. The approach to dialectical materialism also feels its age.
April 16, 2020
A philosophy book--so I am not sure understood half of what was written. Very challenging intellectual pursuit.
October 8, 2020
Fascinating, but frustrating book. Chapters 1-6 and 12 were fantastic (especially 12). 7-11 were kind of impenetrable though tbh
Read
December 27, 2021Courageous and original thesis that is still relevant. Marred by some undigested chunks of carbon copy diamat though of course the work is only a draft.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews