Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind (Paperback)

by Arthur Zajonc (Author) "In 1910, the surgeons Moreau and LePrince wrote about their successful operation on an eight-year-old boy who had been blind since birth because of cataracts..." (more)
Key Phrases: materialistic imagination, quantum realism, archetypal phenomena, Ahura Mazda, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
To the ancient Egyptians, light was "the sight of God." To quantum physicist Max Planck, light consisted of discrete particles or photons. How humanity has conceived of and responded to light is the subject of an intriguing investigation by Amherst physics professor Zajonc. In lyrical, precise prose, he argues that while Plato viewed the "mind's eye" as a form of cognition uniting inner and outer light, Newton and Faraday signaled a transition to a mechanistic conception of seeing and of light. Goethe's theory of color and light, rooted in the imagination, and Rudolf Steiner's metaphysics of light as angelic emanations brought "a renaissance of the mythic," which Zajonc welcomes as he seeks to restore a spiritual dimension to our perception of light and of the world. Along the way he considers Kandinsky, linear perspective, a cultural history of rainbows, Zoroastrianism, Keats and Einstein.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Zajonc is an academic physicist who specializes in quantum physics, but his approach to the subject of light is somewhat unconventional from the perspective of many of his colleagues. He provides a capsule history of humans' changing understanding of the nature of light; scientific developments are interspersed with the comments of numerous philosophers, literary figures, and miscellaneous other non-scientists. In summary, he appears to argue that modern science has failed to supply us with a complete understanding of light and that we would be better off with an amalgam that incorporates spiritual and philosophical aspects as well as scientific models. His views are in part unorthodox but deserve a hearing. Recommended chiefly for academic libraries.
- Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195095758
• ISBN-13: 978-0195095753
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,716 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let there be light! Read this masterpiece., July 18, 1998

By	Steven Shumak ([e-mail]) (Toronto) - See all my reviews

On the cover of this book, James Gleick (of Chaos fame) calls it a "small gem". Indeed. It shines.

Arthur Zajonc has written a contrapuntal study of light and mind. He plays mankind's understanding of one against the other and shows how insights of mind, by mind, illume our notion of light. Zajonc tells how these, in turn, relect back onto our idea of mind. Brilliant.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT, July 20, 2004

By	Zoon Politikon "ZP" (Mexicali, Baja California Mexico) - See all my reviews

This book not only provide a full review of the history of the light (or better, of the conception of light in the human mind) but it is exceptionally well written. English is not my first language and I was delighted with learning to read English through this book.

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is Light?, June 10, 2000

By A Customer

This book is a powerful expose' revealing some of the true qualities of Light. What is Light? True, it is bright, it shines, it energizes all life on Earth, yet what, exactly, is it? Humans not only need the qualities of light from the Sun, but we breathe Light, we absorb Light. We need the Energy produced by the Light in order to live. Readers interested in delving beneath the surface of the visible world will be enthralled by this book. You will finally understand who you are, where you've come from, where you're going. Your soul will revel in this insightful book.