Reality Is Not What It Seems Part 10

25 H. Diels and W. Kranz, eds., Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (The Presocratics: Fragments), (Berlin, Weidmann, 1903), 68 b 247.

2. The Cla.s.sics

1 On the value of Aristotle's physics, see C. Rovelli, 'Aristotle's Physics: A Physicist's Look', in Journal of the American Philosophical a.s.sociation, 1 (2015), pp. 2340.

2 Iamblichus of Chalchis, Summa pitagorica (Milan, Bompiani, 2006). For an English translation, see Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, trans. Thomas Taylor (Vermont, Inner Traditions International, 1986).

3 Isaac Newton, Opticks (1704), (New York, Dover, 1979), p. 400.

4 Giacomo Leopardi, The Canti, with a Selection of His Prose, trans. J. G. Nichols (New York, Routledge, 2003), p. 53.

5 Isaac Newton, Letters to Bentley (Montana, Kessinger, 2010). Cited in H. S. Thayer, Newton's Philosophy of Nature (New York, Hafener, 1953), p. 54.

6 Ibid.

7 Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity (London, Bernard Quaritch, 183955), 3 vols., pp. 4367.

3. Albert

1 Simplicius, Aristotelis Physica (Aristotle's Physics), 28, 15.

2 A. Calaprice, Dear Professor Einstein. Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children (New York, Prometheus Books, 2002), p. 140.

3 The letter is quoted in A. Flsing, Einstein: A Biography (London, Penguin, 1998), p. 337.

4 F. P. De Ceglia (ed.) Scienziati di Puglia: secoli V aC.-XXI, dC, Parte 3 (Scientists of Puglia: From the Fifth Century BC to the Twentieth Centuries, Part 3) (Bari, Adda, 2007), p. 18.

5 A. Calaprice, Dear Professor Einstein. Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children (New York, Prometheus Books, 2002), p. 208.

4. Quanta.

1 Albert Einstein, 'ber einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden Gesichts.p.u.n.kt', Annalen der Physik, 17, pp. 13248.

2 For a biography of Dirac which ill.u.s.trates his disconcerting personality, see Graham Farmelo, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius (London, Faber, 2009).

3 Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, trans. E. A. Latham, (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1951), II, 218.

4 For a discussion of this relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, see 'Relational Quantum Mechanics' in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2003/entries/rovelli, or Carlo Rovelli, 'Relational Quantum Mechanics', in International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 35, 1637, 1996, http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9609002.

5 Bas van Fra.s.sen, 'Rovelli's World', in Foundations of Physics, 40, 2010, 390417; Michel Bitbol, Physical Relations or Functional Relations? A Non-metaphysical Construal of Rovelli's Relational Quantum Mechanics, Philosophy of Science Archives, 2007, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/3506/; Mauro Dorato, Rovelli's Relational Quantum Mechanics, Monism and Quantum Becoming, Philosophy of Science Archives, 2013, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/9964/, and Che cos'e il tempo? Einstein, Gdel e l'esperienza commune (What is Time? Einstein, Gdel and Shared Experience), (Rome, Carocci, 2013).

5. s.p.a.cetime is Quantum

1 The work on the measurability of fields by Niels Bohr and Leon Rosenfeld is 'Det Kongelike Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs', in Mathematiks-fysike Meddelelser, 12, 1933.

2 See Matvei Brontejn, 'Quantentheorie schwacher Gravitationsfelder', in Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, 9, 1936, 14057; and 'Kvantovanie gravitatsionnykh voln', in Pi'sma v Zhurnal Eksperimental'noi I Teoreticheskoi Fiziki, 6, 1936, 195236.

3 See F. Gorelik and V. Frenkel, Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics (Boston, Birkhauser Verlag, 1994). 'Bronstein' was also the real surname of Trotsky.

4 The episode is recalled by Bryce DeWitt, http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/23199.html.

7. Time Does Not Exist

1 Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, trans. E. A. Latham, (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1951), p. 41.

2 William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, 5.1, 237, RSC edition, p. 403.

8. Beyond the Big Bang

1 The speech can be found on the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/speeches/1951/doc.u.ments/hf_p-xii_spe_19511122_di-serena_it.html#top.

2 See S. Singh, Big Bang (London, Harper Collins, 2010),p. 362.

12. Information

1 A detailed discussion of these two postulates can be found in Carlo Rovelli, 'Relational Quantum Mechanics', in International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 35, 1637, 1996, http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9609002.

2 Cicero, Academica priora, II, 23, 73.

13. Mystery.

1 Cited in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 2 vols., (New York, Loeb, 1989).

2 St Augustine, Confessions, XI, 12 (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2002).

3 Mario Luzi, Dalla torre, in Dal fondo delle campagne (Turin, Einaudi) p. 214.

Annotated Bibliography.

Andolfo, Matteo, Atomisti antichi. Frammenti e testimonianze (Ancient Atomism. Fragments and Testominies), Milan, Rusconi, 1999.

Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption, in The Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. I. Ed. Jonathan Barnes, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1984. The princ.i.p.al work by Aristotle which provides information on the thought of Democritus.

Bitbol, Michel, Physical Relations or Functional Relations? A Non-metaphysical Construal of Rovelli's Quantum Mechanics. Philosophy of Science Archives, 2007, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/3506/. Commentary on and Kantian interpretation of relational quantum mechanics.

Baggott, Jim, The Quantum Story: A History in Forty Moments. New York, Oxford University Press, 2011. A good and complete reconstruction of the main stages in the development of quantum mechanics, from its origin to the present day.

Bojowald, Martin, Once Before Time: A Whole Story of the Universe. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. An explanatory description of the application of loop quantum gravity to the origin of the universe by one of the first scientists to use it in this way. Includes an account of the so-called 'Big Bounce' of the universe, which may have happened before the Big Bang.

Calaprice, Alice (ed.), Dear Professor Einstein. Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children. New York, Prometheus Books, 2002. A delightful collection of letters exchanged between Einstein and several children.

Democritus, Raccolta dei frammenti (Collected Fragments). Interpretation and Commentary by S. Luria. Trans. It. Milan, Bompiani, 2007. There is no English translation of this cla.s.sic edition.

Democritus, The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus. Fragments. A text and translation with commentary by C. C. W. Taylor. Toronto, Toronto University Press, 1999. Diehls, H. and Kranz, W. (eds), Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Berlin, Weidmann, 1903. The cla.s.sic collection, in three volumes, of the 'fragments' of the Presocratics.

Dorato, Mauro, Che cos'e il tempo? Einstein, Gdel e l'esperienza commune. Rome, Carocci, 2013. Precise and complete discussion, centred around special relativity, of the Einsteinian modification of the concept of time.

-, Rovelli's Relational Quantum Mechanics, Monism and Quantum Becoming. Philosophy of Science Archives, 2013, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/9964/. Discussion by an Italian philosopher of interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Fano, Vincenzo, I paradossi di Zenone. Trans. It. Rome, Carocci, 2012. An excellent study which highlights the topicality of the problems posed by Zeno's paradoxes.

Farmelo, Graham, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius. London, Faber, 2009. An extensive but highly readable account of the life and baffling character of the greatest physicist after Einstein.

Feynman, Richard, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, eds. Richard B. Leighton and Matthew Sands (3 vols.). London, Basic Books, 2011. Essential physics textbook drawn from the lectures of the greatest American physicist. They are brilliant, original, lively, the product of an outstanding intelligence. No student of physics who is truly interested in science should fail to read them.

Flsing, Albrecht, Albert Einstein: A Biography. New York, Penguin, 1998. Extensive and complete biography of Einstein.

Gorelik, Gennaly E. and Frenkel, Victor, Matvei Petrovich Bronstein and Soviet Theoretical Physics in the Thirties. Boston, Birkhauser Verlag, 1994. Historical study of Brontejn, the young Russian who initiated research in quantum gravity and was executed by Stalin.

Greenblatt, Stephen, The Swerve: How the World became Modern. New York, W. W. Norton, 2011. A book which reconstructs the influence of the rediscovery of Lucretius upon the birth of the modern world.

Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science. New York, Harper & Row, 1962. The true originator of quantum mechanics reflects on general problems of philosophy and science.

k.u.mar, Manjit, Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality. London, Icon Books, 2009. A fine explanatory, detailed reconstruction of the birth of quantum mechanics and, above all, of the long dialogue between Bohr and Einstein on the meaning of the new theory.

Lucretius, On The Nature of the Universe (De rerum natura), trans. R. E. Latham. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1951. The wonderful poem from which we know the ideas and spirit of ancient atomism.

Newton, Isaac, A Treatise of the System of the World. London, F. Fayram, 1731. A little-known work by Newton in which he gives his theory of universal gravity in a much less technical form than in his great treatise (Principia).

Odifreddi, P., Come stanno le cose. Il mio Lucrezio, la mia Venere. Milan, Rizzoli, 2013. Translation with extensive commentary of Lucretius's poem. An ideal school textbook.

Plato, Phaedo, ed. David Gallop. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009. The oldest extant text to speak explicitly about the spherical nature of the earth.

Rovelli, Carlo, 'Aristotle's Physics: A Physicist's Look' in Journal of the American Philosophical a.s.sociation, 1 (2015) 2340.

-, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, trans. Simon Carnell and Erica Segre. London, Allen Lane, 2015. A concise guide through the scientific revolution that shook physics in the twentieth century and still continues to shake us today.

-, The First Scientist: Anaximander and His Legacy, trans. Marion Lignana Rosenberg. Yardley, Westholme, 2007. A reconstruction of the ideas of Anaximander one of the greatest scientists of all time and their influence on the development of science. The book is also a reflection on the birth and nature of scientific thinking: its distinctive character, its difference from mythical thinking, its limitations and strength.

-, 'Quantum Gravity', in b.u.t.terfield, J. and Earman, J. (eds.), Handbook of The Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics. Amsterdam, Elsevier/North-Holland, 2007, pp. 1287330. A long article aimed at philosophers, with a detailed discussion of the current state of quantum gravity, of its unresolved problems and the various approaches to them.

-, Quantum Gravity. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004. Technical manual on quantum gravity. Definitely not recommended for anyone without a background in physics.

-, 'Relational Quantum Mechanics' in The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2003/entries/rovelli/. Synthesis of the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics.

-, 'Relational Quantum Mechanics' in International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 35 (1996), 1637, http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9609002. The article which first introduces the theory of relational quantum mechanics.