The Rigor of Angels: Kant, Borges, Heisenberg

I’d like to share with you some lessons from this week’s podcast, The Rigor of Angels: On Kant, Borges, & Heisenberg with William Egginton. Egginton, a professor at Johns Hopkins, joins me to discuss his new book, which deals with the antinomies of knowledge in the work of three great thinkers.

4 highlights for your convenience:

• The Crevices of Unreason (10:43): Kant, Borges, and Heisenberg all arrived at a similar conclusion about the nature of reality. They believed that reality contains "crevices of unreason," pockets of paradox and uncertainty that remain no matter how hard we try to comprehend the world.

• The Role of Art (19:55): Art provides a means to move forward despite the paradoxes and uncertainties inherent in reality.

• The Conviviality of Great Thinkers (23:41): On the relationship between curiosity, camaraderie, and creativity.

• The State of Writing and Publishing (43:28): Some interesting insights into the book publishing industry (hint: not good), from a seasoned author in the humanities.

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To learn more, check out The Rigor of Angels (2023) by William Egginton.