“The Entwined History of Light and Mind”
Arthur Zajonc
Professor of Physics, Amherst College
Co-founder of the Kira Institute
Abstract:
“For the rest of my life I will reflect on what light is.” Einstein c.1917
The study of light has not been the exclusive domain of scientists. Quite to the contrary, artists, philosophers, theologians and poets have also pondered the nature and significance of light for our world. Light thus becomes an ideal focus for a study of how our varied views of a single thing have changed through the centuries, across cultures and among the disciplines. In addition, we learn that the very minds that perceive light phenomena are changing, and so the two – light and mind – are entwined. By tracing the major shifts in our views of light, we are therefore also tracing the transformations of human consciousness.
Through such interdisciplinary and historical study we come to appreciate the centrality of direct encounter, or “seeing” as a means of understanding. While model construction may well prove useful in science, the real goal of human inquiry, be it in art, science or religion, is to gain a direct and deep perception of that which we are studying. Light has fascinated and eluded our many efforts to be classified. It therefore offers us a wonderful vehicle for the exploration of the meeting place of physics, philosophy and spirituality and the role of “seeing” as knowing.
Bio:
Arthur Zajonc is professor of physics at Amherst College, where he has taught since 1978. He has been visiting professor and research scientist at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, and the universities of Rochester, Innsbruck, and Hannover. In 1997 he served as scientific coordinator of “The New Physics and Cosmology,” the sixth Mind and Life meeting, a five-day dialogue with the Dalai Lama. More recently in October of this year Arthur Zajonc organized the 10th Mind and Life meeting with the Dalai Lama, which was on “The Nature of Matter, the Nature of Life.” Arthur is a founding member of the Kira Institute, an organization that explores the interface between science, values and spirituality. He has been President of the Anthroposophical Society in America and the Lindisfarne Association. Arthur lectures widely on the foundations of quantum physics, the history and philosophy of science, the relationship between higher education and spirituality. He is author of Catching the Light, co-author of Quantum Challenge, and co-editor of Goethe’s Way of Science. His book Dialogues with the Dalai Lama on the New Physics and Cosmology will appear from Oxford University Press.