Translation Rights TQE / The trivial roots of the fundamental

We reflect using words, but the meaning of words evolves as a result of that reflective exercise. Trivial is, on the one hand, an irrelevant piece of knowledge, a truth incapable of transcending itself, and yet, that truth guarantees itself. And so, Jorge Wagensberg proves that, quite often, these trivial truths are the best starting point, the best theoretical base, for advancing knowledge, or to reformulate it in a decisive manner. This extraordinary treaty wishes to demonstrate that what is trivial is not really trivial, in other words, that what is trivial can be found at the root of all transcendental and fundamental knowledge.

This is a passionate exploration of how we come to comprehend reality and how the mind of a scientist works. In order to achieve this, the book explores classical physics, modern physics, intuition of space and time, biology, and even economy and sociology, illustrating and re-thinking the founding principles of these disciplines.

Praise for his previous works:

“Wagensberg is a scientist with a humanist vocation that provokes the emotion which Aristotle referred to as the starting point of philosophy: admiration.” El Periódico

“Essential for those who are capable of finding delight in knowledge and science.”

Tomás de Andrés

“A jewel that should be sincerely recommended.” La Vanguardia

“With this seductive text, Wagensberg manages to surprise and move the reader with the intelligibility of the world.” El Periódico

“This work includes so many brief and wonderful aphorisms that everyone – even the most difficult to convince – will come to doubt that good ideas can also be incredibly complicated, difficult and sometimes even impossible to summarize.” El País

Jorge Wagensberg (Barcelona, 1948), Doctor of Physics, is professor of Irreversible Process Theory at the University of Barcelona. He not only investigates and disseminates science, but is also a dynamic promoter of the debate of ideas, which has achieved him Catalonia’s National Prize for Scientific Thought and Culture, among other awards. He is the director of our Metatemas collection and is now responsible for the Scientific and Environmental Area of the “la Caixa” Foundation, after having directed the scientific museum CosmoCaixa, a reference for science museums around the world. He is the author of a dozen books and of many works of investigation on thermodynamics, mathematics, biophysics, microbiology, paleontology, entomology, scientific museology, and the philosophy of science, as well as of journalistic articles on a number of different topics. We have published six wokrs, among them Si la naturaleza es la respuesta, ¿cuál era la pregunta?, La rebelión de las formas, A más cómo menos por qué and El gozo intelectual.