Physics as Metaphor

This is by far the best book about the connection between physics and the humanistic point of view. This book made a huge impact on how I am looking at the world around us. No comparison with Tao of physics or any other "bestsellers" on that subject. Cannot believe it's out of print!

"Physics As Metaphor" is perhaps the best book I've read by a scientist who has realized that science has usurped our notion of reality to such an extent that most of us, but especially scientists themselves, have forgotten the essential truth that the tools science uses are only metaphors of reality, man-made systems designed to bring order and understanding to the world. Yet as Prof. Jones shows in a very readable fashion, we must not only not confuse these metaphors with reality itself, we need to understand that the metaphors are in many ways hindering us from perceiving the deeper unities in all things, as certain ancient races understood and Native American cultures still preach today. These are unities not only among humans and with the cosmos, but also the ties among overly specialized academic displines, such as the hard sciences, psychology, and religion. For those who have read other anti-scientism tracts the above surely sounds familiar, but "Physics As Metaphor" demonstrates in precise, readable, logical terms why the four cardinal metaphors of physics, number, space, time, and measure, are only human, self-referential devices. Rather than trying to show the convergence of sub-atomic physics and mysticism, Prof. Jones takes a different tact and very insightfully also demonstrates that metaphors like space and measure actually cause us to separate ourselves from the deeper unity of the One. And no matter what science says about the meaningless of "its" universe, people are perenially searching for (deeper) meaning. "Physics As Metaphor" borrows skillfully from the writings of other scientists and philosophers of science, like Barfield, Polyani, Poincare, Kuhn, and many others, and at the end of the book there is a comprehensive guide to the sources the author used to formulate the ideas in the book. Perhaps the most meaningful chapter in Jones's book is his discussion of our search for "absolute truth" in science as a form of escapism from facing our own mortality. Ernest Becker's book, "The Denial of Death," which I was "coincidentally" reading at the same time (and recently reviewed), is discussed in the context of how the four cardinal metaphors of physics are symbolic of the illusory struggle for eternal life and lasting significance. The final chapters are the author's recommendations for teaching physics (science) as metaphor. Exercises are given which attempt to expand the awareness of the student, to see things from different apoints of view, to provide new metaphors.

At first glance, this book seems to come from the same stable as "The Tao Of Physics". On the one hand Roger Jones analyses basic scientific concepts as does Fritjof Capra in very simple terms and in an accessible language. This makes it a good book for the absolute beginner curious about the nature of this powerful and influential form of thought. The intention in this book is somewhat different from Capra's. The book is divided into two halves, separated by his basic metaphor whichcuriously rebounds on him. "Science is based on the fear of death" he writes. It is the basic metaphor behind the scientific conception, a psychology of intent rarely admitted and simply stated. Given the objective flavour of the scientific method, this fear is carried in the substrata of the rational consciousness and never sees the light of day. Consequently, it is an unproven if unprovable hypothesis, and not one that serves the interests of science. Perhaps that is why we hear so little about it. However, Mr Jones as author of the statement proceeds in an intuitive rather than conscious manner to underpin his view. In the first half of the book, he reflects upon the self-referential circularity of basic concepts employed by science. At the same time, there occur a number of coincidences upon which Mr Jones remarks in the course of writing this book. Synchronicity is not the subject for discussion here, except to note that this is a common experience when one is engaged in activity of intrinsic value. In this book, it becomes an interesting bench-mark because the reader is quite literally able to see the exact point at which the author shifts his position to one of abject acceptance, and subjugates himself to the same fear of death metaphor which he has exposed here. As analytic as so many so-called a priori ideas in science prove to be, he comes upon one that he is unapologetically forced to accept., the principle of inertia as it is shaped by the basic laws of motion. Most people treat this idea as given and unquestionable, when it is in fact an assumption, based on an assumption. It is this principle that is the link to the fear of death as it is carried in science, even though Mr Jones never makes the connection, in spite of being the author. From this moment on, the synchronicities he observes take on a more dubious character, not realising that he is engineering them to drop out of his thinking. In the first half, they had the character of spontaneity about them which is lost in the latter half. It is this half that frames him as scientist above all, and this degeneration is quite visible through the terms of his own making. Consequently, this short book is quite remarkable for this insight alone, and should never be out of print as a lesson in what it means to become a scientist in terms of the way that it limits one's own perceptions of reality, if taken to be all-encompassing, when it is all the time built on shaky f