Physics as Metaphor (Abacus Books) (Paperback)

curiously rebounds on him. "Science is based on the fear of death" he writes. It is the basic metaphor behind the scientific conception, a psychology of intent rarely admitted and simply stated. Given the objective flavour of the scientific method, this fear is carried in the substrata of the rational consciousness and never sees the light of day. Consequently, it is an unproven if unprovable hypothesis, and not one that serves the interests of science. Perhaps that is why we hear so little about it. However, Mr Jones as author of the statement proceeds in an intuitive rather than conscious manner to underpin his view. In the first half of the book, he reflects upon the self-referential circularity of basic concepts employed by science. At the same time, there occur a number of coincidences upon which Mr Jones remarks in the course of writing this book. Synchronicity is not the subject for discussion here, except to note that this is a common experience when one is engaged in activity of intrinsic value. In this book, it becomes an interesting bench-mark because the reader is quite literally able to see the exact point at which the author shifts his position to one of abject acceptance, and subjugates himself to the same fear of death metaphor which he has exposed here. As analytic as so many so-called a priori ideas in science prove to be, he comes upon one that he is unapologetically forced to accept, the principle of inertia as it is shaped by

the basic laws of motion. Most people treat this idea as given and unquestionable, when it is in fact an assumption, based on an assumption. It is this principle that is the link to the fear of death as it is carried in science, even though Mr Jones never makes the connection, in spite of being the author. From this moment on, the synchronicities he observes take on a more dubious character, not realising that he is engineering them to drop out of his thinking. In the first half, they had the character of spontaneity about them which is lost in the latter half. It is this half that frames him as scientist above all, and this degeneration is quite visible through the terms of his own making. Consequently, this short book is quite remarkable for this insight alone, and should never be out of print as a lesson in what it means to become a scientist in terms of the way that it limits one's own perceptions of reality, if taken to be all-encompassing, when it is all the time built on shaky foundations and on a peculiar fear of what is inevitable.