Publisher's Weekly Review
Science and spirituality converge in this probing examination of humanity's connection to the divine. Physicist Lightman (Probable Impossibilities) contends that "some human experiences are simply not reducible to zeros and ones" and draws on philosophy and science to suggest that materialism and spirituality are compatible. He digs into the history of both perspectives, noting that 18th-century philosopher Moses Mendelssohn believed a soul must exist to integrate the different parts of the human body into a cohesive experience and that, on the other end of the spectrum, Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus argued "everything that happens in the world... originates from the movement and properties of physical atoms, not the gods." Reconciling these opposing views, Lightman broaches the possibility that spirituality could be evolutionarily beneficial, with the need to feel part of "something larger than one's self" impelling early humans to cooperate and the appreciation of transcendent beauty stemming from beauty's role in sexual attraction. The prose is reflective and lyrical, and Lightman's arguments succeed in walking the fine line between honoring spiritual experiences without lapsing into pseudoscience. Thoughtful and intellectually rigorous, this treatise impresses. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
A scientist explains experiences that seem inexplicable. Lightman, physicist, professor of the practice of humanities at MIT, and author of Einstein's Dreams, is a materialist who believes that every phenomenon has a cause that originates in the physical universe. Even our feelings "are rooted in the material neurons of the nervous system and the electrical and chemical interactions between them." Still, the author has also reveled in overwhelming feelings of awe, beauty, and a sense of connection with matters larger than himself, which he defines as "spirituality." He denies that these can only be explained through mysterious occult forces. We experience them through the brain. This, he admits, puts him in the minority; 72% of Americans believe in heaven, 58% in hell, and nearly half in ghosts. Belief in a nonmaterial, ethereal world is deeply appealing because everyone knows that being alive is special and longs for permanence. No one can imagine not existing, and most of us are mesmerized by miracles; 79% of Americans believe in them. Never shy about tackling big, complex issues, Lightman devotes the first chapter to the soul: immaterial, invisible, and perfect in contrast to the flawed body. The soul is also eternal, and since most people believe that our selves don't merely vanish when we die, even many nonreligious people believe in its existence. Lightman is skeptical, however. For most of the book, he argues that spiritual experiences emerge from a high level of consciousness and intelligence. One expert feels that consciousness is just another word for paying attention, which scientists are beginning to describe in terms of electrical and chemical activity in the brain. Lightman urges readers to accept a scientific view of the world while embracing experiences that cannot be understood by material underpinnings. We need to balance a yearning to know how the world works with a willingness to surrender ourselves to things we may not fully comprehend. Convincing arguments for "spiritual materialism" unlikely to disturb religious readers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Acclaimed physicist and writer Lightman (Probable Impossibilities, 2021) has always had a scientific view of the world. His innate curiosity led him to conduct countless experiments as a young boy and set him on the path to becoming a renowned physicist. That same curiosity produced wonder and awe over what Lightman calls transcendent experiences, such as appreciation of beauty, falling in love, and a sense of connection to nature. The scientific worldview is one of materialism, stating that everything is made of atoms and molecules and that they're governed by a finite number of natural, fundamental laws. Lightman shows that these immutable physical laws are actually not incompatible with transcendent experiences but, indeed, are part of what makes us human. While these experiences vary greatly, we frequently gather them under the rubric of spirituality. The realm where scientific reasoning collides with the unexplainable sublime is that of spiritual materialism. Lightman writes with passion and panache about how the search for knowledge need not inhibit moments of transcendence, offering a poignant reminder that wonder is everywhere, if we only look.
Library Journal Review
Science and spirituality are not incompatible, argues novelist Lightman (Einstein's Dreams), a professor of science and the humanities at MIT. Here he ranges through the literature, from Roman poet/philosopher Lucretius, whose materialism can illuminate less concrete phenomena, to contemporary social psychologist Cynthia Frantz, who uses science to explain our connection to nature, to make the case for what he calls "spiritual materialism."
Excerpts
1 The Ka and the Ba A Brief History of the Soul, the Nonmaterial, and the Mind-Body Duality The man sits at the table, leans toward a friend in the opposite chair. One hand rests on his knee, the other lightly cradles his chin with its short scraggly beard. He wears a red jacket, dark pants, silver-buckled shoes, a white shirt with rued cus. While his friend reaches out with a smile, our man seems lost in some deep inner realm, as if brooding over the vast cosmos of earthly existence and what might come after. His face would be recognized by many in eighteenth-century Europe, from numerous portraits rendered on porcelain teacups, vases and pendants, busts, paintings. His name is Moses Mendelssohn. This particular painting with the red jacket depicts a meeting between Mendelssohn and two other thinkers: the German writer and philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Swiss poet and theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater. The latter once described Mendelssohn as "a companionable, brilliant soul, with piercing eyes, the body of an Aesop-- a man of keen insight, exquisite taste and wide erudition . . . frank and open- hearted." Let's describe the scene a bit more. Judging from Mendelssohn's visage, he is about fifty years old, making the year about 1779. A chessboard rests on the table. Above it hangs a brass fixture, whose top section is a chandelier and lower part an oil lamp used for the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays. Mendelssohn is the most famous Jew of his generation. Although deeply religious, he has crossed the border from Jew to Gentile. Breaking from a prescribed life of studying the Talmud and Torah in Hebrew, Mendelssohn has mastered the German language, more adeptly than the Prussian king Frederick the Great, and writes his many philosophical works in that tongue. Against the back wall of the room is a shelf filled with books. A wood floor. A beamed ceiling. A richly embroidered green cloth on the table. A woman enters the room carrying a tray with teacups. This is Mendelssohn's home, on 68 Spandau Street in Berlin. It is a prosperous house. After beginning life as the son of a poor Torah scribe and living for years as a lowly clerk in a silk factory, Mendelssohn has become part owner of the factory. I start with Mendelssohn because no other philosopher or theologian in the history of recorded thought has argued so rationally for the existence of the soul, the prime example, after God, of the nonmaterial. Aristotle claimed that the soul could not exist without a body. Augustine attributed all aspects of the soul to the perfection of God, Augustine's starting point in all things. Maimonides assumed the existence of the soul, which would become immortal for the virtuous (but not for the sinners). Mendelssohn made none of these assumptions. Coming of age after the scientific revolution of Galileo and Newton, Mendelssohn started from scratch. He constructed logical arguments for the existence of the soul and its immortality. He thought like a scientist as well as a philosopher. In 1763, he won the prize oered by the Prussian Royal Academy of Science for an essay on the application of mathematical proofs to metaphysics, beating out such people as Immanuel Kant. In his salon, a portrait of Isaac Newton hung next to the portraits of the Greek philosophers. Mendelssohn was a polymath. As a boy, he studied astronomy, mathematics, philosophy. He wrote poetry. He played the piano (studying with a student of J. S. Bach). At the age of sixteen, he began learning Latin, so that he could read Cicero and a Latin version of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Aaron Gumperz, the first Prussian Jew to become a medical doctor, taught Mendelssohn French and English. In his twenties, Mendelssohn joined the German writer and bookseller Christoph Friedrich Nicolai to publish the literary journals Bibliothek and Literaturbriefe. Not content with five languages under his belt, Mendelssohn then learned Greek, so that he could read Homer and Plato in the original. In 1767, Mendelssohn wrote his masterwork, Phädon, or On the Immortality of the Soul, a reconception of Plato's famous Phaedo. In doing so, Mendelssohn wanted to do for the modern European world what Plato had done for the ancient Greek world-- describe the necessity and nature of the soul. "I . . . tried to adapt the metaphysical proofs to the taste of our time," Mendelssohn modestly wrote in the preface to his book. But he did more than adapt. He presented new arguments. He reasoned that while the body and all experiences of the body are composed of parts, to arrive at meaning there must be a thinking thing outside of the parts to integrate and lead their individual sensations, just as a conductor is needed to lead a symphony orchestra. Furthermore, this thinking thing beyond the body must be a whole. If it were composed of parts, then there would need to be another thing outside of it, which composed and integrated its parts, and so on, ad infinitum. "There is, therefore . . . at least one single substance, which is not extended, not compound, but is simple, has a power of intellect, and unites all our concepts, desires, and inclinations in itself. What hinders us from calling this substance our soul?" And, the Jewish scholar argued, the soul must be immortal, because nature always proceeds in gradual steps. Nothing in the natural world leaps from existence to nothingness. Excerpted from The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science by Alan Lightman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
