Introduction

Abstract

Imagine a wooden ladder. It leans against a tree in an orchard, wind-battered and gray, its wood etched in dark and narrow grooves. Though the elements have stripped it of its shine, the wood is oddly soft. Looking at the ladder, one knows that one is aware of it, as one is aware of the orchard and the fruit ripening in the trees and the geese flying overhead.

Reality is more fluid and elusive than reason, and has, as it were, more dimensions than are known even to the latest geometry. George Santayana