We all see the world around us differently. Some people believe in gradual political progress
others push for radical revolution. Some of us see our lives as a long process of growth and
change and others as a series of landmark events. In Waves and Stones philosopher Graham
Harman gives a name to this age-old divide and lays out a new unified theory for
understanding it. 'Waves' look at the world through continuities from phenomena as diverse as
the incremental baby steps of childhood to the slow creep of fascism. The 'stone' perspective
by contrast favours jarring discontinuity: the first day at secondary school or the dropping
of the atom bomb. This dualism is one of the most fundamental paradoxes in human thought. With
dazzling insight Harman shows how the continuous vs discrete divide can be found wherever we
turn at the heart of every intellectual discipline from mathematics to politics and embedded
in the fabric of our daily lives. Tracing its roots from Aristotle to Bergson he proposes a
new way of thinking about this ancient problem with profound implications for our
understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.
