The Principle of True Representation

About the Book

What is this vast world we inhabit, and how are we to understand its lawlike behavior? In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Winthrop seeks to identify the very source of physical law with a view to explaining why there are any laws at all, and why they have the forms they do. The main idea is to treat the representation of a fact of the external world as a received message. By assuming exact correspondence between fact and representation, one arrives at a general law of physics—a law of laws—one that yields both known and new laws governing the behavior of the quantum microworld and the universe at large. An antidote to the stale materialism of contemporary physical thought, The Principle of True Representation erases the boundaries between physics, metaphysics, and neuroscience, charting a new direction in the pursuit of physical knowledge—a new way of doing physics and, beyond that, a new way of seeing and thinking about the natural world. As such, the wide-ranging chapters of this volume should attract the attention of a broad spectrum of workers seeking to view fundamental problems in a new light.

About the Author

John T. Winthrop studied X-ray holography and optical self-imaging at the University of Michigan, earning his doctorate in physics there in 1966. A fellow of the Optical Society of America, he devoted his professional life to the design of varifocal lenses and holds many patents in the field of ophthalmic design. Winthrop currently lives in Stevensville, Montana.