Earlier this year we brought you Physics: A Science in Quest of an Ontology—not realizing, at the time, that the book was yet incomplete.
The book was divided into two Parts, but it turned out that Prof. Smith still had one more in him.
As for the book as a whole: To the extent that modern physics possesses an ontology at all, it has tended to be the Cartesian doctrine of “bifurcation.” Not only, however, does this thesis prove to be untenable, but since the advent of quantum theory it has rendered physics de facto incomprehensible. This book introduces an astoundingly uncomplicated and inherently Platonist ontology in which the quantum theoretic stratum assumes its rightful place within the hierarchy of being.
Part III contains two new magisterial chapters, “Platonist Cosmology: The Long Lost Key” and “On Being and Consciousness.” The final writings of Prof. Smith, this is view-from-50,000-feet material you won’t find printed anywhere else!
“[I]t needs to be realized that physics proves ultimately not to be the basic science from which, in principle, all others are derived. This seems to have been, up till now, the presiding expectation at least; my point is that this premise cannot be sustained: the cosmos is not that ‘monotone’.”
—Wolfgang Smith, from the Preface to the Second Edition
“This book crowns Professor Smith’s thirty-year career in the philosophy of science, with a solid ontology desperately needed if we would, finally, understand quantum theory.”
—Raphael D.M. De Paola, Department of Physics, PUC-Rio
The book is now available in paperback and deluxe hardcover at the PSI Shop. Coming soon to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.
