The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality

I like a lot of books. It has been some time since I enjoyed a book to this extent. Philosophical, biographical, anecdotal, scientific, linguistic, the book offers a lot. Eggington explores how our very act of observation and interpretation shapes the reality we experience, paralleling a notion prominent in Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Borges’s fictional explorations. That ability to observe and interpret is Reason, the focus for Kant’s work and the basis of what is admirable. The self is the entity that builds relations. Without relation, there is nothing. “Slowing life to a single frame destroys the observation itself.” (No momentum, just position) In an example of the rigor in research that Eggington put into this work, he finds that all three men (Borges, Kant, Heisenberg) are united not just by their struggle and impacts on space and time (and thoughts/ words to describe them), but (see Cloud Cuckoo Land) a book they each read: “Plotinus, and his book The Enneads, expounds the doctrine of time as the moving image of eternity that was so influential to Augustine and that seeped into the groundwaters of Kant’s intellectual upbringing. Curiously, it was this very book that Borges was reading as he searched for respite from his overwhelming despair.” Rigor of Angels examines the concept of reality as perceived and constructed by human cognition, challenging the traditional notions of space, time, and self. The text underscores the limitations of human perception and the paradoxical nature of seeking objective reality, highlighting the role of human reason in shaping our understanding of the world. A little redundant here and there, perhaps, and not a perfect book but a wonderful one. It’s a valuable exploration of the precise and the abstract, with the ability to create and to resolve mystery by living in between.

Esta es la opinión que menciono en el título.”The subject matter is engrossing for a reader with an interest in both philosophy and contemporary physics. In my opinion the writing style made the reading a bit more difficult than necessary. Specifically, many of the sentences were of almost paragraph length and I found myself re-reading them in order to follow the gist of the author’s presentation. That having been said, the subject matter is fascinating but could have been presented in a more readable manner.”El contenido es fascinante y profundo. No está al alcance de todo el mundo.Precisamente porque el libro es de contenido difícil, el modo en que está escrito es inconveniente. El inglés que utiliza el autor es rebuscado y casi retorcido (yo diría que a propósito) para que una materia tan densa, incluso estando avisado el lector, se haga de más difícil entendimiento. El inglés más retorcido que me he encontrado.Es curioso que en el propio texto, cuando el autor trata de la acogida que tuvo la Crítica de la Razón Pura (long awaited), menciona que un lector de la “crítica” dice que “la he leído tres veces y aún creo que necesitaré una cuarta lectura” (pág 116). Pues lo mismo cabría decir de este libro.Por lo demás, merece la pena; pero ¿cómo recomendar su compra?