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Draws on the revolutionary discoveries of modern physics to reveal a universe built on experience and relationship, offering a new foundation for an ethical and spiritual life.
For centuries, science and spirituality have been viewed as irreconcilable. For the physicist Arthur Zajonc, this conflict is based on a profound misunderstanding. The true obstacle is not science itself but its entanglement with scientific materialism—a philosophy that, Zajonc argues, has been dismantled by the very discoveries of twentieth-century physics. In Thinking Beyond Materialism, Zajonc takes the reader on a journey through the implications of relativity and quantum mechanics, revealing a universe built not on inert matter but on the inner dimensions of human experience, relationship, and a productive, existential ambiguity. Drawing on his dual expertise as a physicist and meditation teacher, and his pioneering work with the Mind & Life Institute and the Dalai Lama, Zajonc charts a path toward a new worldview. The result is a "contemplative manifesto" that moves beyond outdated dogmas, proposing a science that befriends subjectivity, embraces holism, and rediscovers a firm foundation for an ethical and spiritual life.
"In this book, Arthur Zajonc argues against the reductionist claims of science and seeks a way to fruitfully include contemplative understanding in a comprehensive, integrated worldview that reaches beyond materialism. I find his way of thiniking similar to my own." — H. H. the Dalai Lama
"Synthesizing physics with a philosophy based on the primacy of experience and contemplation, Zajonc provides a decisive alternative to materialism, offering a new path forward for science and human experience in the twenty-first century. A landmark book." — Evan Thompson, University of British Columbia
"This aptly titled (and subtitled) book is a delight to read. Don’t be put off by the weight of the subject(s). Starting at an early age, Arthur Zajonc—treasured educator, scholar, physicist, meditator and friend to many, including the Dalai Lama—set out to discover 'an enduring, living, reality' as a guide to living well. He found it. He has lived it, and in this, his capstone work, he brings us along for the ride in a rare combination of vivid storytelling and astute analysis. It's fun, it's fulfilling, and it couldn't be more timely or important as we humans confront multiple threats to our shared humanity." — Diana Chapman Walsh, President Emerita, Wellesley College, and author of The Claims of Life: A Memoir
Arthur Zajonc is Emeritus Professor of Physics at Amherst College and the former President of the Mind & Life Institute. His previous books include Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind; Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love; and, with George Greenstein, The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.
Foreword
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Science and the Transcendent
Science in Dialogue—Three Strands in Early Modern Science—Unweaving a Rainbow—Perversions of Science and Religion—Religions' Critics— Separate but Equal—The Dangers of Border Crossing—Beyond Independence to Dialogue and Integration—Science and the Contemplative—Embracing the Undivided Life—Cognitively Oriented, Contemplative Spirituality
2. From Moral Law to Quantum Mechanics
Order by Edict—The Geometry of the Heavens—Kepler: A Watershed Figure—Dawn of the Mechanical Philosophy—A New Dawn
3. In Search of an Enduring Reality
Four Turns—Mistaking Theory for Fact—Facts as Theory—In Pursuit of Objectivity—Spatial and Temporal Dissection—Science Oversimplified— The Problem of Size—Issues Arising from Relativity—Commonplace Matter and Mechanism—Turning Reality Inside Out—Wheeler's Participatory Universe—Mathematical Models—Seeking a Viable Alternative
4. Implications of Relativity
The Beginnings of Relativity Theory—The Idea of "Now"—Setting the Stage: The Mechanical Philosophy—The Germ of Relativity—Two Types of Theory—Harmonizing the Two Postulates—Relativity of Simultaneity— Length Contraction and Time Dilation
5. Coincidence of Opposites
The Many "Nows" of Relativity Theory—Time Slowing Down—Invariance: Finding our New Footing—A Relational Approach—A Participatory Universe
6. Matter as Experience
The Perennial Question Concerning Matter—Experiencing Matter— Natural Minima and Emergence
7. Matter as Idea
Matter and Mechanism—Of Idols and Abstractions—"Mass Without Mass"—In Pursuit of Perfection—Identity—Indistinguishability—The Archetypal Quantum Device—Quantum Contextuality
8. Relational Reality
Types of Matter—Matter in Quantum Field Theory—Where the Ideal Becomes Real—Existential Ambiguity—Entanglement—The Beautiful if Strange World of the Quantum—Many-Pointed Attention—Relational Properties—Finding Meaning—Learning to See—The Centrist Buddhist View of Reality
9. Science of the Soul
William James and the Varieties—False Starts—Inner Empiricism—Mental Cognition as a Sixth Sense—Inner Rationality—Finding Meaning in the Math—Awakened Universe—Five Turns
10. Embracing Ambiguity
An Epistemological Challenge—Cultivating Contemplative Insight— Transformative Knowing—Polarity in Knowing—Taking Science into New Territory—Extending the Anthropic Principle—Present Under the Form of Absence—From the Temptation of Certainty to the Ultimate Turn
Notes
Bibliography
Index