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Physics and Vertical Causation: The End of Quantum Reality
The companion volume to the new documentary film featuring the life and thought of Wolfgang Smith, The End of Quantum Reality
Quietly, over the past few decades, mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and mountain climber Wolfgang Smith has published a stunning series of books at the cutting edge of science and metaphysics. Some titles tell the tale: Cosmos and Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief; The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key; Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions: A Critique of Contemporary Scientism; Science and Myth: With a Response to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design; and Rediscovering the Integral Cosmos: Physics, Metaphysics, and Vertical Causality.
The present book, which appeared in an earlier version as Part I of the last-named, includes arresting new material on the metaphysics of the integral cosmos. Smith accomplishes a magnificent re-integration of the physical sciences into a worldview banished in the West since the Enlightenment yet perfectly accommodative of every legitimate discovery of science. So far from constituting a kind of academic, or nostalgic curiosity, however, that long-forgotten worldview proves to be precisely what is needed to resolve the quandary of the so-called quantum paradox, which has stymied theoretical physicists since the year 1927! The implications of this text, which re-evaluates Einstein's relativism as well as epistemologies falsely based on the Galilean/Cartesian notion of "secondary qualities," restores the ontological realism of the world as we behold it, and--perhaps most shockingly--restores geocentrism as well, in its profoundest sense. The epochal implications of Smith's work will be brought to light for an expanded audience in a full-length documentary film on his life and thought, The End of Quantum Reality, scheduled for release in early 2019. "One has, in the evening of one's life, the luxury to speak freely," Smith writes, and as never before, so he does.
Quietly, over the past few decades, mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and mountain climber Wolfgang Smith has published a stunning series of books at the cutting edge of science and metaphysics. Some titles tell the tale: Cosmos and Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief; The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key; Ancient Wisdom and Modern Misconceptions: A Critique of Contemporary Scientism; Science and Myth: With a Response to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design; and Rediscovering the Integral Cosmos: Physics, Metaphysics, and Vertical Causality.
The present book, which appeared in an earlier version as Part I of the last-named, includes arresting new material on the metaphysics of the integral cosmos. Smith accomplishes a magnificent re-integration of the physical sciences into a worldview banished in the West since the Enlightenment yet perfectly accommodative of every legitimate discovery of science. So far from constituting a kind of academic, or nostalgic curiosity, however, that long-forgotten worldview proves to be precisely what is needed to resolve the quandary of the so-called quantum paradox, which has stymied theoretical physicists since the year 1927! The implications of this text, which re-evaluates Einstein's relativism as well as epistemologies falsely based on the Galilean/Cartesian notion of "secondary qualities," restores the ontological realism of the world as we behold it, and--perhaps most shockingly--restores geocentrism as well, in its profoundest sense. The epochal implications of Smith's work will be brought to light for an expanded audience in a full-length documentary film on his life and thought, The End of Quantum Reality, scheduled for release in early 2019. "One has, in the evening of one's life, the luxury to speak freely," Smith writes, and as never before, so he does.
- GenresPhilosophySciencePhysics
150 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2019
53 people are currently reading
197 people want to read
About the author
Wolfgang Smith
34 books112 followersWolfgang Smith is a scholar and researcher in the fields of mathematics and physics, but is also a writer on theology, metaphysics, and religion. Because of his unusual qualifications in both scientific and theological disciplines, he is able to write with great authority on many topics of concern to religious and scientific scholars today. He has published extensively on mathematical topics relating to algebraic and differential topology. However, ever since his youth, Smith has had a deep interest in metaphysics and theology. Early on, he acquired a taste for Plato and the neoplatonists, and traveled in India to gain acquaintance with the Vedantic tradition. Later he devoted himself to the study of theology, and began his career as a Catholic metaphysical author.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 7, 2020
Wolfgang Smith attempts here a powerful rebuke of relativistic physics, and endeavors to solve the metaphysical morass engendered by quantum theory. His coinage here, of "vertical causality," certainly has some use to it in understanding the difference between the deterministic, mechanical "horizontal causality" of starting conditions on a closed system and the causality associated with free will and the observer effect on quantum waves and particles. I can't say he really hits it out of the park, as this ingenuity is then followed by an attempt to rehabilitate an Aristotelian, geocentric cosmology.
That said, I found his discussion of the various philosophical issues with modern physics quite interesting, as was his use of the geometric metaphors of line, circle, and point to elucidate a tripartite, traditionalist cosmology where there is time and space, but no space-time. I think while his Thomist apologetics might be forgettable, his conceptualization of "vertical causality" is quite useful and will likely be picked up by future thinkers.
That said, I found his discussion of the various philosophical issues with modern physics quite interesting, as was his use of the geometric metaphors of line, circle, and point to elucidate a tripartite, traditionalist cosmology where there is time and space, but no space-time. I think while his Thomist apologetics might be forgettable, his conceptualization of "vertical causality" is quite useful and will likely be picked up by future thinkers.
December 6, 2020
What did he just say?
I'm sure, there are some good ideas in here somewhere, but I find Wolfgangs writings mostly incomprehendable. Drop the special language of metaphysics, and speak normally. As Dr Vernon McGee once said, "Put the cookies where the children can find them."
I'm sure, there are some good ideas in here somewhere, but I find Wolfgangs writings mostly incomprehendable. Drop the special language of metaphysics, and speak normally. As Dr Vernon McGee once said, "Put the cookies where the children can find them."
March 26, 2024
Interesting!
October 18, 2019
Still reading. Interesting perspective on physics and metaphysics, but the author blows it on page 57-58; has he not heard of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucaul...?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews