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Books

The Rigor of Angels by William Egginton

Leonid Bilmes considers the problems we face if we assume our theories match reality.

Immanuel Kant, Werner Heisenberg, and Jorge Luis Borges walk into a bar. Kant, ever punctual, arrives first. The problem for Kant, though, is that the barman cannot see him as he really is. What the barman at Antinomy Inn sees before him is a short man with keen eyes and an inordinately large head. The barman rubs his eyes: the image of the short man standing at the counter remains, yet somehow, it’s not really there: it’s like he’s surrounded by a cloudy veil.

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