100 Books Like The Phenomenon of Man

OK, maybe it’s funny to recommend a book that sold in the millions. But this, and the TV series that went along with it, remains the best explanation of the evolution of astronomy and, especially, the social context for that evolution. Carl Sagan is by far the best science popularizer of the past century.

While researching Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, I rented an apartment a few blocks from a house where Galileo lived in Florence. I could stand outside its door every day, but this book transported me inside—not just a building but a family, a home, and an era. 

Dava Sobel’s meticulous research reveals not just new dimensions of Galileo’s life and work as an intrepid scientist but the often hidden realm inhabited by his daughter. Illegitimate and unmarriageable, she entered a convent at age 13 to live in poverty and simplicity. And yet, as her letters demonstrate, Sister Marie Celeste’s soul and spirit soared. The ending—which I dare not spoil—has haunted me since my first reading decades ago.

I read this book long back and was blown away by how it compared and connected the philosophies of India and China with the latest discoveries in Quantum Physics. Seemingly, the two distant worlds of Asia and Western Science are overlapping and intertwined, as this book powerfully demonstrates.

It is a well-known analysis of the striking parallels between contemporary physics and Eastern mysticism. The book's main thesis is that the sophisticated Western conceptions of the modern world may be accommodated by the logical theoretical framework found in the ancient and mystical Eastern traditions.

In 2009, while completing my book, I had the privilege to meet pioneering experimental psychologist Lawrence LeShan. I’d quoted LeShan several times in my book and wanted to know more of his story. He received me graciously at his cluttered Manhattan apartment and patiently filled in details of his writing The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist (MMP).

As a young Turk with a Ph.D. in psychology, LeShan set out to debunk all the “nonsense” about so-called paranormal phenomena. By his own admission, he “made a mistake”: he looked at the data. The data were so compelling that LeShan shifted focus from trying to debunk to trying to understand the paranormal.

MMP is the fascinating story of the different threads that LeShan’s subsequent intellectual journey followed.

Fleeing the Nazi Anschluss, Austrian quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger (famous for the wave equation and his eponymous cat) took refuge at Trinity College in Dublin. To thank his hosts, Schrödinger delivered a series of ground-breaking lectures in 1943, later published as What is Life? Schrödinger’s thought-provoking queries, originating from quantum mechanics, paved the way for the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. After the war, in subsequent lectures published as Mind and Matter, Schrödinger tackled a deeper subject: the nature of consciousness.

Together, these classics are unparalleled in what they imply about life and its most remarkable attribute: sentience.

Troubling aspects of Schrödinger’s personal life make it tempting to exclude this work. Ultimately, it's crucial to separate the profound message from the messenger, who was deeply flawed.

This best explains why the dominant ideas in the popular version of science are wrong and why the right ideas make sense. Prigogine, a Nobel Laureate, and his colleague philosopher Isabelle Stengers show that the popular notions of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, time, and determinism don’t correspond to scientific observations.

These wrong notions lead to paradoxes that make it impossible for scientists to understand such basic phenomena as human consciousness, which makes all science possible. Instead, the authors lay out an evolutionary approach, validated by much research, that shows how time, evolution, and reality can be understood without mysticism.

While this book is not about science, it gives the social context for how ancient scientific and anti-scientific ideas developed in slave-owning societies and before. It is the best description of the development of human society to the end of the ancient period that I’ve ever read.

Unfortunately, some of the anti-science ideas of ancient slave-owners, discredited in the scientific revolution, are still with us today, and Child explains how they came to be.

Gamow, one of the greatest popularizers of science and a leading nuclear researcher, clearly describes for non-scientific audiences the drama of the early evolution of quantum theory.

For those who think, based on current popularization, that quantum mechanics is akin to mysticism, this book shows how the quantum debates evolved in real life. Gamow, unlike current popularizers, does not assume that the debates have been resolved in favor of some nonsensical obscurantism.

Many commentators have made the observation that a great deal of the violence and nihilism of our time can be traced back to the split in Western civilization between our science traditions and our wisdom traditions. But as science deepened its understanding of the universe, there came a moment when suddenly it was possible to bring science and wisdom back together.

The genius who blazed a path to this new synthesis was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I will never forget the impact his book had on me. In a phrase, I would say the great gift I received from reading his book was to experience cosmological time as sacred. It led to an escape from dualism and an entrance into an enchanted universe.

This book by James Stump is a landmark work that contains the best amalgam of philosophy, science, and theology that I have come across.

I was strongly moved by the many discussions of the role of change (exemplified by biological evolution) in our world. Stump discusses how science itself, as much as the subjects of scientific enquiry, changes and ties this in with the theological implications of biblical/scientific interactions.

The book covers a great deal of ground as the chain of the title weaves into the problem of evil, the origins of humanity, the definition of the soul, and a lot more. It is all beautifully written and highly accessible, as well as accurate and thorough throughout.

Many readers will know the author from the high-quality podcast, “The Language of God.” Reading this book, one can almost hear Stump’s melodious voice as he discusses the science of God’s creation with… show more.