Paradoxical Life
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Meaning, Matter, and the Power of Human Choice
Andreas Wagner
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For readers of Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, a fascinating look at the hidden meaning in matter
What can a fingernail tell us about the mysteries of creation? In one sense, a nail is merely a hunk of mute matter, yet in another, it’s an information superhighway quite literally at our fingertips. Every moment, streams of molecular signals direct our cells to move, flatten, swell, shrink, divide, or die. Andreas Wagner’s ambitious new book explores this hidden web of unimaginably complex interactions in every living being. In the process, he unveils a host of paradoxes underpinning our understanding of modern biology, contradictions he considers gatekeepers at the frontiers of knowledge.
Though we tend to think of concepts in such mutually exclusive pairs as mind-matter, self-other, and nature-nurture, Wagner argues that these opposing ideas are not actually separate. Indeed, they are as inextricably connected as the two sides of a coin. Through a tour of modern biological marvels, Wagner illustrates how this paradoxical tension has a profound effect on the way we define the world around us. Paradoxical Life is thus not only a unique account of modern biology. It ultimately serves a radical—and optimistic—outlook for humans and the world we help create.
“From Gödel’s theorem in mathematics to the wave-particle duality of quantum physics, the appearance of paradox in science often points the way to the deeper understanding of our natural world. The same holds true for the life sciences, as Professor Wagner entertainingly illustrates in his wide-ranging exploration of paradoxical behavior in biological systems. Skillfully written for the non-expert, Paradoxical Life examines the tension between apparently contradictory phenomena—altruism and selfishness in evolving species, for example—and concludes that such tension not only plays a critical role in biology, but may also hold the key to the human power of choice, a power that gives us a unique place in the biosphere.”—Frank T. Vertosick, Jr., M.D., author of The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing
"Andreas Wagner weaves together biology and philosophy in this lovely meditation on the many paradoxes of living systems, demonstrating that it is precisely life's stark contradictions that make it, paradoxically, understandable and meaningful."—Melanie Mitchell, Portland State University and Santa Fe Institute, author of Complexity: A Guided Tour
"The full-blooded, dynamical thinking of a scientist at the height of his creative powers, this is a breathtakingly original and intellectually exciting synthesis of all that biology has taught us of how science relates to the world."—Günter Wagner, Yale University
“Wagner presents a new way of looking at the relationship between science and ourselves, and of thinking about some very old arguments. This is a book for readers of Douglas Hofstadter, Karl Popper, and Richard Dawkins.”—Jonathan Kaplan, Oregon State University
Gold Medal winner of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Award in the Science category
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
