The Absolute Beneath the Relative and Other Essays [Hardcover]

Stanley L. Jaki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0819171824 | ISBN-13: 978-0819171825

The exploitation of Einstein's relativity theory on behalf of the relativization of all norms and values is the most conspicuous aspect of a culturally disastrous trend, which, in its various ramifications, is the critical target of this book. Students of history, psychology, sociology and metaphysics will find much food for thought and rich material in this latest of the author's long-standing efforts aimed at the demythologization of science. This book presents fourteen not readily available essays of the winner of the Templeton Prize for 1987. Co-published with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fr. Jaki's latest and masterful collection of essays is a fascinating defense of absoluteness in nature, philosophy, and theology, and is a 'must' for all scientists, philosophers, and theologians as well as for other educated laypeople.>>>> (Reflections )

...a wide-ranging and penetrating book that deserves an extensive readership.>>>> (Dr. P.E. Hodgson Reflections )

Fr. Jaki has given us a marvelous synthesis of science, philosophy, theology, and current events, a tour de force in clear prose that should delight the intelligent, impress the intelligentsia, and challenge the intellectual.>>>> (Homiletic & Pastoral Review )

Fr. Jaki has given us a marvelous synthesis of science, philosophy, theology, and current events, a tour de force in clear prose that should delight the intelligent, impress the intelligentsia, and challenge the intellectual. (Homiletic & Pastoral Review )

Fr. Jaki's latest and masterful collection of essays is a fascinating defense of absoluteness in nature, philosophy, and theology, and is a 'must' for all scientists, philosophers, and theologians as well as for other educated laypeople. (Reflections )

...a wide-ranging and penetrating book that deserves an extensive readership. (Dr. P.E. Hodgson Reflections )

About the Author

Stanley L. Jaki is Distinguished University Professor at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. Father Jaki is the 1987 recipient of the Templeton Prize, awarded for original efforts to advance man's understanding of God.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of America (December 7, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819171824
• ISBN-13: 978-0819171825
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,158,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A rich collection of essays, September 18, 2007

By 

Elliot B. Bougis "E.B. de Sales" (Taichung, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Absolute Beneath the Relative and Other Essays (Paperback)

I own several, in fact, nearly all, of Fr. Jaki's books and I consider «The Absolute Beneath the Relative» (ABR) to be one of his best essay collections (others include «Chance or Reality?», «The Only Chaos», «Limits of a Limitless Science», «Patterns or Principles», «The Gist of Catholicism», et c.). The contents of ABR are as follows:

1. The absolute beneath the relative: Reflections on Einstein's theories
2. The impasse of Planck's epistemology
3. The metaphysics of discovery and the rediscovery of metaphysics
4. God and man's science: A view of creation
5. Brain, mind and computers
6. The role physics in psychology: Prospect in retrospect
7. Order in nature and society: Open or specific?
8. Scientific ethics and ethical science
9. The physics of impetus and the impetus of Koran
10. The last century of science: Progress, problems, and prospects
11. Science and censorship: Hélène Duhem and the publication of the Système du monde
12. Monkeys and machine guns: Evolution, Darwinism, and Christianity
13. The demythologization of science
14. Science and hope

I consider chapters 1, 3, 5, 9, 11 and 13 to be among the best in the book, and not simply for their own merits but also because they capture some important insights of Fr. Jaki's works perhaps easily missed in his larger books (or, indeed, hard to find simply because the books themselves are rare!).

If you're interested in cognitive science issues, and want a thorough Jakian take on it, for diachronic consistency you should first read «The Relevance of Physics», then the first four chapters of the 1989 edition of Jaki's «Brain, Mind, and Computers» (BMC), then chapter 5 of ABR, and then the last (fifth) chapter and the epilogue of (BMC).

ABR's chapter 9 is particularly intriguing not only, again, for its contents, but also because when Fr. Jaki read it at a Middle Eastern university, he was shouted at on stage and threatened by audience members (faithful adherents, all, of the religion of peace, mind you).

Chapter 10 in ABR throws light on an obscure and curiously neglected matter in the history of science, namely, the efforts of Hélène Duhem to get published her late father's magnum opus, the ten-volume «Système du monde». (The chapter title is a slight play on another of Fr. Jaki's books, «Uneasy Genius», about the life and work of Msgr. Duhem himself.) This episode is important not only because it deals with the scandalous neglect of one of the most important contributions to the history of science, ever (viz., Duhem's «Système»), but also because it gives lots of potential fodder, in our increasingly feminized age, for a heroically feminist historiography of science.

Be advised that my paperback copy of ABR has a grave printing error, to wit, every two pages of the last chapter are blank. I don't know if this is the case for (m)any other paperback copies or for hardback copies, but the cost of a hardback copy is, right now (19 Sept 07), prohibitively expensive, so if you have a problem, just do as I did: photocopy the missing pages, cut them to size, and glue them in the book.