The Rigor of Angels

Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality

By: William Egginton

Narrated by: David Glass

Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

A NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A poet, a physicist, and a philosopher explored the greatest enigmas in the universe—the nature of free will, the strange fabric of the cosmos, the true limits of the mind—and each in their own way uncovered a revelatory truth about our place in the world

“[A] mind-expanding book. . . . Elegantly written.”—The New York Times

“A remarkable synthesis of the thoughts, ideas, and discoveries of three of the greatest minds that our species has produced.”—John Banville, The Wall Street Journal

Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality. Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant pushed the assumptions of human reason to their mind-bending conclusions, but emerged with an idea that crowned a towering philosophical system—that the human mind has fundamental limits, and those limits undergird both our greatest achievements as well as our missteps.

Through fiction, science, and philosophy, the work of these three thinkers coalesced around the powerful, haunting fact that there is an irreconcilable difference between reality “out there” and reality as we experience it. Out of this profound truth comes a multitude of galvanizing ideas: the notion of selfhood, free will, and purpose in human life; the roots of morality, aesthetics, and reason; and the origins and nature of the cosmos itself.

As each of these thinkers shows, every one of us has a fundamentally incomplete picture of the world. But this is to be expected. Only as mortal, finite beings are we able to experience the world in all its richness and breathtaking majesty. We are stranded in a gulf of vast extremes, between the astronomical and the quantum, an abyss of freedom and absolute determinism, and it is in that center where we must make our home. A soaring and lucid reflection on the lives and work of Borges, Heisenberg, and Kant, The Rigor of Angels movingly demonstrates that the mysteries of our place in the world may always loom over us—not as a threat, but as a reminder of our humble humanity.

©2023 William Egginton (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A New Yorker best book of the year • A New York Times Notable Book • A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

“[A] mind-expanding book.... Elegantly written.... This is a book about the tiniest of things—the position of an electron, an instant of change. It is also about the biggest of things—the cosmos, infinity, the possibility of free will. Egginton works through ideas by grounding them in his characters’ lives.... The beauty of this book is that Egginton encourages us to recognize all of these complicated truths as part of our reality, even if the ‘ultimate nature’ of that reality will remain forever elusive. We are finite beings whose perspective will always be limited; but those limits are also what give rise to possibility. When we choose what to observe, we insert our freedom to choose into nature. As Egginton writes, ‘We are, and ever will be, active participants in the universe we discover.’”—The New York Times

“The Rigor of Angels—the title is taken from a phrase in a Borges story— is a remarkable synthesis of the thoughts, ideas, and discoveries of three of the greatest minds that our species has produced. The richness of the book cannot be fully acknowledged in the space of a review. Mr. Egginton advances a great many knotty arguments and propositions, but he is never less than exciting, provocative, and illuminating.”—John Banville, The Wall Street Journal

“In this sprightly intellectual history, Egginton explores the lives of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, the writer Jorge Luis Borges, and the physicist Werner Heisenberg in order to plumb some of the most profound questions of physics and philosophy: the limits of knowledge, the structure of space and time, free will.”—The New Yorker

Excellent book

A very stimulating read. Well written and engaging. I wish there were more books like this connecting science with philosophy and literature.

Wonderful synthesis is science, poetry, and philosophy

If you are interested in consciousness, physics, philosophy, poetry, or all of the above, if you like Carlo Rovelli; if you tried to slog through Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, then this approachable, engrossing book is for you!

Incredible

Blending literature, physics and philosophy in a quest to understand the implications of quantum theory, this is a masterpiece, utterly compelling, beautifully composed.

Brilliant

A must read, from cover to cover. Mind bending, mind expanding, needed days to let it settle.

Brilliant Narrative Non-fiction

Thoroughly enjoyable, well written and narrated historical tale of Physics, Philosophy and Literature.
The author gives a nod to two of my favorite living interdisciplinary figures –Sean Carroll and Sam Harris –which adds to the enjoyment. While I fall on the side of Sam Harris regarding certain views it was good to hear these ideas broken down and beautifully reweaved.

Challenge to our current world view.

Whst we can know about ourselves and the world is more limited than we had hoped or imagined it to be, before reading this outstanding book. This true understanding far outweighs our previous illusory world view which had at its core the belief that existence - ours and the world’s - itself could be understood objectively. For me, this was a Copernican revelation that will pervade all of my subsequent personal exploration of being. I was very weak on physics, quantum physics specifically, when I picked up this book. I still am but with with a slightly less noticeable difference in the right direction. Fortunately , I have great friends who are not weak in this regard, and they will coach and tolerate me in my ongoing quest to be less weak! Although Kant’s philosophy can be difficult to interpret, I found it easier to grasp than quantum mechanics. This certainly did not detract from my overall pleasure in reading this challenging book.

Amazing, well told

One of a kind masterpiece on the ultimate nature of reality. I am looking forward to his other works.

The most ridiculous narration

The narration is so over the top and theatrical that it truly detracts from what is otherwise an innovative and compelling thread. I was actually embarrassed listening to this.

Narrator

The narrator sounded like he was trying to imitate Carl Sagan. But instead makes the ideas sound bombastic.

Brilliant storytelling.

Plausibly weaves together philosophical, literary, and experimental physical descriptions of human experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it. David Glass really brought the book to life.