The tao of physics7/3/2023 ![]() ![]() Whatever your background, The Tao of Physics is a brilliant essay on the meeting of East and West, and on the invaluable possibilities that such a union promises. These are the words of Fritjof Capra, a theoretical physicist. ![]() And those approaching modern physics from a background in Eastern mysticism will find precise yet comprehensible descriptions of a Western science that may reinvigorate a hope in the positive potential of scientific knowledge. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science but man needs them both. Those approaching Eastern thought from a background of Western science will find reliable introductions here to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism and learn how commonalities among these systems of thought can offer a sort of philosophical underpinning for modern science. Capra finds the same notions in modern physics. But the big picture is enough to see the value in them of experiential knowledge, the limits of objectivity, the absence of foundational matter, the interrelation of all things and events, and the fact that process is primary, not things. Covering over 3,000 years of widely divergent traditions across Asia, Capra can't help but blur lines in his generalizations. Decades later, it still stands up to scrutiny, explicating not only Eastern philosophies but also how modern physics forces us into conceptions that have remarkable parallels. First published in 1975, The Tao of Physics rode the wave of fascination in exotic East Asian philosophies. ![]()
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