Carlo Rovelli, "There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness" 에서

 

 

이론물리학자 Carlo Rovelli 의 물리학, 철학, 그리고 세상에 관한

46편의 에세이를 모은 이 책에서 (앞에 올린 "Thank You, Stephen",

"De rerum natura", "Are We Free?" 에 더해) 임의로 몇 구절 더

인용한다.

 

Nabokov himself has written: "A writer should have the precision of

a poet and the imagination of a scientist." ... In 1948, in a passage

inserted into Speak, Memory, one of the most celebrated literary

biographies of the twentieth century, Nabokov writes in his luxurient,

exacting prose: When a butterfly has to look like a leaf, not only are

all the details of a leaf beautifully rendered but markings mimicking

grub-bored holes are generously thrown in.... I discovered in nature

the nonutilitarian delights that I sought in art. (pp. 11-12)

 

De Finetti's significance lies in the fact that he understood how

we can have a shared and reliable knowledge without absolute

certainties. His insight was that the subjective character of

probability and the probabilistic aspect of knowledge are not in

contradiction with the fact that we can converge to reliable

knowledge. The key that makes this poissble is a subtle

theorem that we owe to ... Thomas Bayes. Bayes' theorem

shows two things. First, how every new piece of empirical

evidence modifies the probability of beliefs. Second, and

crucially, that these modifications lead our beliefs to converge,

even if they are different to begin with. (p. 54)

 

But it is at precisely this point that national identity becomes an

obstacle to larger scale cooperation. Forged in order to reduce

internal conflicts, it ends up provoking external ones that are

even more damaging. (p. 107)

 

There is only one scientist who has won two Nobel Prizes for

work in two different sciences, and she is a woman, Maria

Skłodowska Curie.... Her clashes with the bigotry, obtruseness,

and downright stupidity of patriotism and "defense against

foreigners," her unstintingly serious gaze, the richness of her

scientific legacy and the clarity and generosity of her life have

remained examplary. Albert Einstein said of her that she was

the only person never to be corrupted by fame. (p. 114, 116)

 

But the idea that the science closest to religion is psychology,

coming from a Catholic priest [Georges Lemaître] who has

thought deeply about the connection between religion and

science, is still a surprizing one. Surprizing, but to my mind,

also revealing. (p. 125)

 

The aggressive diatribes of Pope pius XII against religious liberty,

against the freedom of the press, against liberty of conscince, are

examples that I suppose the current Church must find

embarrassing. (p. 127)

 

[Giacomo] Leopardi is seeking nourishment for his soul, and he

finds it in what we know about this vast world: in science, in

astronomy.... The primary source, as much for his intellectual

clarity as a poet as for the enchanted way in which he looks at

the world, was the fact that he had made contemporary scintific

knowledge deeply his own, beginning with astronomy, the mother

of science.... And his poetry continues to resonate with us, telling

us that life, despite the "infinite vanity of things," is also an

enchantment. As in his most famous line, "it is sweet to me to be

shipwrecked in this sea." (pp. 133-4)

 

Naturalism without Mrrors is a complex book in which one of the

most brillant contemporary philosophers, Huw Price ... discusses

a version of what it would be no exaggeration to call the dominant

philosophy of our time: naturalism.... Price calls it the "problem of

placement," and formulate it as the question of where to "place"

in the world of natural sciences things such as moral values,

beauty, consciousness, truth, ..., laws, and so on.... To interpret

our sophisticated and complex linguistic activities as affirmations

of external reality is a basic error that, according to Price,

generates the false problem of placement.... There is anther

possibility: to understand them as aspects of our own behavior

as complex natural beings in a complex natural world.

(p. 149-150) [Review: Naturalism without Mirrors]

 

Perhaps in a curious way, transprting ourselves back to our

natural reality ... ends up bringing us closer to the intuitions of

Nietzsche ...: before being a rational animal, man is a vital

animal -- "It is our needs that interpret the world." (p. 151)

 

This fear is explicit in Mein Kampf; this feeling of inferiority,

this sense of being surrounded by imminent danger. The

reason behind the need to dominate others derives from a

terror of being dominated by them. The reason for preferring

combat to collaboration is that we fear the strengh of

others. (p. 160)

 

Penrose is a polyhedral intellectual. Readers know him for

several books, among them the dense and wonderful

The Roads to Reality, a great panorama of contemporary

physics and mathematics, a popular work that is not easy

and that shines with intelligence and profundity on every

page. (p. 187)

 

Our intuition balks at the immense numbers and the

endless variety generated by combinations.... It is for

this reason, I believe, that it seems inconceivable that

things as complex as life, or our own thought, can

emerge from simple things: because we instinctively

underestimate simple things. (p. 214)

 

I don't trust those who are good for the sake of pleasing God. I

prefer those who are good because they actually are good. I don't

like having to respect my fellow men and women because they are

children of God. I prefer to respect people because they are beings

who feel and suffer. (p. 228)