Smith continues to pursue the trail he blazed with The Quantum Enigma with this compact fourth book dedicated to untangling the ontological conundrums at the heart of physics. Here, in three enlightening chapters, he examines what he posits may be “the key to an ontological comprehension of physics”: the irreducible wholeness of a “corporeal entity,” meaning it’s “not subject to the bounds of space and time”—and not reducible to the sum of its “atomistic” parts. Smith argues that irreducible wholeness, or IW, offers a glimpse of “a previously unsurmised ontological unity and order,” represents a solution to the famous “measurement problem” that has fascinated/frustrated physicists since Schrödinger and Heisenberg. Smith’s contention also stands as a challenge to much contemporary physics theorizing, such as superdeterminism and “widespread and supposedly well-informed opinion”s about quantum theory.

The measurement problem, of course, centers on the mystery of the collapse of a wave function at the moment of measurement. In previous books, Smith has made the case that this transition from corporeal to physical “cannot be accomplished by means of the causality upon which physics as such is based.” Here, he goes further, arguing that understanding the transition means stepping outside of physics altogether. “I incline to believe that the worst metaphysics is generally to be found among those who claim not to have any at all,” Smith writes, with customary wit, in a preface.

That exemplifies the text that follows, a crisp, coherent, unabashedly opinionated presentation that will be clear and engaging to readers who need not be subject experts to follow along—though some background in physics will certainly aid in evaluation of Smith’s contentions, which suggest, at times, a return of Platonism. Smith is a deft stylist, offering brisk, memorable thumbnail rundowns of physics, ontology, and the histories of science, mathematics, and more. The crucial distinctions he draws between the physical and corporeal, or horizontal and vertical causality, come through with sharp clarity. Three included articles digging deeper into aspects of IW illuminate the main text.

Takeaway: A sharply penned argument that solving physics’ great puzzle demands stepping outside of physics.

Great for fans of: Jean Borella and Wolfgang Smith’s Rediscovering the Integral Cosmos, Sabine Hossenfelder’s Existential Physics.

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