The listing is divided into two parts:
Both of these are available in hardback, quality paperback, and inexpensive paperback.
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics (1975). Capra here devotes most of the book to discussing the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mystical philosophy. Along the way he provides good introductions to both.
Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (1979). Zukav, a non-physicist, provides excellent discussions of modern physics. Although Eastern mystical philosophy is used as one background of the discussion, Zukav does not spend as much time as Capra on parallels, instead concentrating on the physics. This book played a large role in the existence of this course.
Edwin Abbott, Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover, 1952). Written circa 1884, this book will be used to illustrate our difficulties in visualising the four-dimensional nature of spacetime by following A. Square, a two-dimensional being, as he tries to visualise the third dimension. A very funny book.
David Bohm and B.J. Hiley, The Undivided Universe, an Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory (Routledge, 1993). We will be discussing Bohm extensively. This is his master work. Written for physicists, some parts are nonetheless accessible by a non-technical audience. Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order is at a level more suitable for the typical JPU200Y student, but only discusses his thinking up to 1980.
William R Everdell, The First Moderns (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1997). Einstein, Seurat, Joyce, Planck, Picasso, and more all rolled into a discussion of the rise of modernism around the beginning of this century. Everdell is sort of an intellectual's James Burke, whom you may know from his television series Connections. Dean Everdell has solicited email from students in this course about the book and/or questions related to the topics of the book: you may contact him by clicking here.
James Gleick, Chaos, Making a New Science (Penguin, 1987). Note that the title of this book says "Science" not "Physics". Gleick is correct, but much work on chaos occurs in physics departments.
Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (Norton, 1999). Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are excellent introductions to Special Relativity, General Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics respectively. If there were additional chapters dealing with a few more topics from our syllabus, this book would be a textbook for the course. Instead, most of the book is an excellent discussion of superstring theory.
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (Bantam, 1988). Hawking, suffering from terrible physical disabilities, is just as brilliant as the press would have us believe. One goal of this course is to make this book more accessible. Sadly, a former tutor in this course was completely correct when he proposed the following multiple choice question for a test:
Stephen Hawking is:
(a) a lousy writer.
Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams (Pantheon, 1993). Lightman is a physicist who is also head of the Creative Writing Laboratory at M.I.T. Here is presents a number of dreams that Einstein could have been having while developing the special theory of relativity in 1905.
Rudolf v. B. Rucker, Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (Dover, 1977). A lovely book on the theories of relativity and cosmology, based in part on Flatland, which appears earlier in this list.
Marie-Louise von Franz, Number and Time, Reflections Leading Towards a Unification of Psychology and Physics (Rider, 1974). von Franz was a student and collaborator of C.G. Jung for 25 years. Here she explores how "mind" connects with "matter" at the most fundamental level.
This page last revised 08/28/00 (m/d/y).