ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book focuses on a new worldview emerging from the science of the last decades of the second millennium. Its metaphor is the cosmic dance, or the harmony between systems so strongly interdependent that they behave as a single entity. This dance image hints at a general, evolving pattern in which all objects in the universe participate—like the ordered chaos of an African open-air market.

Some chapters discuss the nature of processes in the universe, including chaos and chance in the game of life. The reconciliation of variety and unity is addressed about the space-time continuum and the unified field of relativity theory. Del Re continues investigating the origins of freedom and ethics, suggesting that science indicates that the human species may have a specific task in the universe: building a bridge between matter and spirit.

Del Re ponders alchemy, the significance of symbols, and the meaning of the soul. Woven throughout various esoteric and scientific inquiries is the underlying sense of the unifying principles of science and a spiritual outlook. The questions raised are issues that will be discussed by an emerging network of scientists and spiritual seekers, and this book will add a valued and informed perspective to these conversations.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Professor Giuseppe Del Re (1932–2009) was a full professor of theoretical chemistry at the University of Naples and a full member of the International Academy for Philosophy of Science and the European Academy for Environmental Problems. He was a founding member of the International Centre for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies. He was a member of the scientific board of several journals, particularly the international philosophical journals La Nuova Critica, Fiolsofia Oggi, and Hyle.

Professor Del Re’s main achievements in his primary research field are marked by the well-known “Del Re Method” for determining atom charges in molecules and by introducing maximum localization hybrids in the molecular orbital method. Researchers around the whole world have utilized both procedures. In the field of epistemology, as a result of lectures on the chemical origin of life, he has carried out research on &ldquot;complexity&rdquot; with particular reference to the (a) organization as a characteristic of living beings, (b) the mind-body problems, and (c) chemistry and its status as an independent discipline.

In his lifetime, Del Re published over 180 papers, about 170 in internationally recognized scientific and philosophical journals. He was the editor of a book on the brain-mind problem published by the Pontifical Academy of Science, translated into Italian, and authored a book on the electronic states of molecules. He was a research group leader in 1959–62 at RIAS, Baltimore, U.S.A, invited researcher at the Institut de Biologie Physico–Chimique of the University of Paris 1963–1970, and was invited professor in Canada, Germany, France, Peru, and Hungary. His most recent appointment out of Italy was as an invited professor at the cole Normale Suprieure in Paris in 1997.

REVIEWS

Choice - Middletown, CT
June, 2001

All through the history of science, there has been hard-core science that experiments, collects data, calculates, and propounds theories; and reflective science that ponders the significance of it all and weaves a worldview based on science's findings. Since the rise of quantum mechanics and relativity, the latter has been receiving at least as much attention as the former, even by many practicing scientists. Del Re's thoughtful and well-written book seeks a spiritual undercurrent in the scientific findings of the past century. Its primary theme is the interconnectedness in the universe, the major refrain of postmodern science that sees unity behind diversity, in brute phenomena as well as in the web of life. Nothing happens by itself, everything is an integral part of a unified whole, and phenomena may be looked on as a "cosmic dance" in which everything participates, not at random or separately, but in unity and resonance, "like the ordered chaos of an African open-air market." In a remarkable survey and synthesis of physics and philosophy, chemistry and causality, and incorporating meaning and ethics Del Re presents an eminently interesting view of science an its results, suggesting that humanity could well be the bridge between matter and spirit. Highly recommended. All levels. - V. V. Raman, emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology.

The Bookwatch
April, 2001

The Cosmic Dance: Science Discovers The Mysterious Harmony Of the Universe explores how the image and metaphor of dancing helps us come to terms with evolution, randomness, irreversibility, and the emergence of new information - including the conception of the universe as a complex system made up of complex systems. From atoms to planets, solar systems to galaxies, and the choreographed evolution of ecosystems and human beings, The Cosmic Dance views such phenomena as interacting wholes, and apparently chaotic systems can work well. Author Guiseppe Del Re examines the nature of complexity, order, and organization while referencing scientists, philosophers, and literature. The Cosmic Dance examines the place of man in the scheme of things, including human ethics, morals, mind, soul, and psyche. A fascinating, informative, and at times inspiring blend of philosophy and science, The Cosmic Dance engages both the mind and the imagination that will be read with deep interest by scholarship and the non-specialist general reader alike.

Anvil
Jan 2 2003

Giuseppe Del Re offers a new vision of the harmony of the universe based on the idea of dance--hence The Cosmic Dance with a commendation by Thomas F. Torrance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Thomas F. Torrance ix

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments / xv

1. The Great Dance Image / 3

2. Information, Order, and Life / 29

3. The Structure of Sensible Reality / 55

4. Time and Becoming / 85

5. An Interlude on Chaos, the Game of Life, and Chance / 113

6. Birth of a Voice / 133

7. Regularity, Variety, and the Unity of the World / 159

8. The Place of Man / 185

9. Mechanism, Magic, and How Nature Is One / 215

10. Alchemy and Technology: From Wisdom to Know-How / 247

11. Universal Communication, Meaning, and Symbols / 275

12. Mind, Soul, Psyche / 309

13. About a Scientific World-View / 345

14. Envoy / 379

Bibliography / 393

Index of Names / 401

Index of Subjects / 405

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