Under the letter “B” in the index at the back of Carlo Rovelli’s latest book you will find Francis Bacon, bats, behaviourism, Henri Bergson, and the big bang. This intriguing little miscellany reflects the sweeping ambition of what is perhaps Rovelli’s most overtly philosophical work to date. Rovelli, who directs a quantum gravity research group in Marseille, has written several books on physics for the general reader, including the global bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.
His latest is an attempt to integrate principles and theories from the discipline into a broader Weltanschauung: one of the essential unity of all things, and the profoundly relational and perspectival nature of the universe. Rovelli echoes concepts that have been around for millennia in ancient thought, including Hinduism and Buddhism, from whose sacred texts he quotes. But what sets him apart from the countless other modern writers, dreamers and thinkers who preach the oneness of it all is that he grounds his ideas in scientific theory rather than theology or new age conjecture.
On the Equality of All Things is a slender volume holding an extraordinary density of ideas. Translator Simon Carnell, himself a poet, maintains the clarity and concision we have come to expect from Rovelli’s writing. In six chapters, or “lessons”, Rovelli lays out the philosophical significance of what he believes is a major scientific revolution, happening right now.
The first lesson refers to his theory of relational quantum mechanics to ask us to abandon the notion that the world is made up of things with fixed properties. Rather, physical systems have properties relative to other physical systems. Also, everything’s moving, all the time, and there’s no fixed point around which we are in motion.
The second lesson takes aim at the idea of linearity. Rovelli urges us to accept circularity and question the need to identify the ultimate foundation of things, when in fact, it’s turtles all the way down. The world is not made up of things at all, but processes.
Time itself is mutable and passes at different speeds in different places. Our knowledge of anything can only ever be partial. It’s enough to give you vertigo, and Rovelli admits it.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
