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TagCormac McCarthy

view-of-universe-with-stars-and-amazing-colorful-and-deep-blue-dark-stockpack-adobe-stock
View of universe with stars and amazing colorful and deep blue dark
Type
post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
September 21, 2023
Categorized
Physics
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The Universe and its Mathematical Structure

Do humans project mathematics upon nature or vice versa?
Andrew McDiarmid
September 21, 2023
2
Physics

This past June, we published an article featuring a conversation between physicist Lawrence Krauss and novelist Cormac McCarthy, where they discussed whether mathematics was “discovered or invented.” Robert J. Marks went on to write his own thoughts on the question shortly thereafter. If you’re further interested in mathematics and whether there is an actual correspondence between math and the natural world, consider watching new podcast episode featuring Dr. Melissa Cain Travis. Do humans project mathematical order onto nature? Or was it there all along? On a new episode of ID the Future, I conclude a three-part conversation with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her recent book Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility.  In Part 3, we look Read More ›

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close up of dandelion on the blue background
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 9, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Cormac McCarthy’s Love for Science and Mathematics

His interest in science and mathematics were not extraneous hobbies but performed a strong role in the fiction he wrote
Peter Biles
July 9, 2023
2
Arts & Culture

The late novelist Cormac McCarthy passed away on June 13th in Santa Fe, leaving a legacy of fictional works grappling with fate, masculine alienation, and the possibility of a transcendent reality. McCarthy’s two last books, The Passenger and Stella Maris, which are intended to be read together, are about a brother and sister who are both brilliant mathematicians, and whose father helped craft the atomic bomb with the Manhattan Project. McCarthy’s work is haunted both by a bleak fatalism and glimpses of an enduring reality beyond the merely physical. His interest in science and mathematics were not extraneous hobbies; they performed a strong role in the fiction he wrote. Nick Romeo writes at Scientific American, Science is also a source Read More ›

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Milky Way over Cordillera Huayhuash
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 25, 2023
Categorized
Mathematics, Science
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Is Mathematics an Illusion? Lawrence Krauss and Cormac McCarthy Discuss

McCarthy asked, "Would mathematics be here if we weren't?"
Peter Biles
June 25, 2023
3
Mathematics, Science

In December, physicist and author Lawrence Krauss interviewed the late American novelist Cormac McCarthy, who died on June 13th at the age of 89 in Santa Fe, N.M. McCarthy is famous for his remarkable fictional works like The Road and Blood Meridian, but he was also deeply fascinated with mathematics and science. Apparently, he enjoyed reading science more than he did fiction! He moved to Santa Fe from El Paso to be closer to the Santa Fe Institute, a science think tank where McCarthy would spend time speaking with various physicists, scientists, and mathematicians. His latest two novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, are about a brother and sister who are both brilliant mathematicians. Towards the beginning of the interview, Read More ›

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Ft. Davis Sunset
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 13, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Cormac McCarthy, Author of “The Road” & “Blood Meridian,” Dead at 89

McCarthy thought that if the book didn't deal staunchly with matters of life and death, it was best left unwritten
Peter Biles
June 13, 2023
2
Arts & Culture

American author Cormac McCarthy, who was known for his dark and often macabre novels, died on June 13th at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 89. McCarthy was one of America’s most formidable and talented authors. He began his career in Tennessee, writing novels primarily about Appalachia. He moved to El Paso in 1976, where, thanks to funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he wrote Blood Meridian, a ruthless tale of vagabond outlaws wandering Texas and Mexico on scalping expeditions. Many critics find this to be his best work. McCarthy went on to write The Road, a post-apocalyptic novel published in 2006, which he dedicated to his son, John. The Road tells the story of a father and his Read More ›

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Illustration eines Eisbergs
Type
post
Author
News
Date
November 4, 2022
Categorized
Language, Philosophy of Mind
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Cormac McCarthy Tries To Make Sense of the Unconscious Mind

He offers shafts of light that make the “hard problem of (un)consciousness” feel less forbidding
News
November 4, 2022
4
Language, Philosophy of Mind

In a classic piece at Nautilus, novelist Cormac McCarthy (b. 1933) — author of, among other novels, All the Pretty Horses (1992) and The Road (2007) — muses on the origin and nature of the unconscious mind. As we might expect from a novelist, it’s not his grand theory that is of much use at all. His grand theory is that “the unconscious is a machine for operating an animal,” which makes no sense. He adds, “All animals have an unconscious. If they didnt they would be plants.” How does he know that pond hydras, for example, have an “unconsciousness” but maple trees don’t? Well, he doesn’t. And yet, he also offers shafts of light that make the “Hard Problem Read More ›