Product Description

Impressively wide-ranging study ... an immensely thought-provoking book." In an age of black holes and limitless space, we are racked with uncertainty about the meaning of life. In this readable study F. David Peat explains why the 18th-century certainty that science would solve all problems no longer applies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #774111 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 230 pages

From Publishers Weekly
At the same time that 20th-century science brought unprecedented advances, it also led to the growing awareness of the limitations of scientific knowledge itself. Through wonderfully concise, clear metaphors, physicist Peat (Infinite Potential) traces the philosophy of science from the 19th through the 20th centuries, showing how the earlier era¡s faith in the reliability of scientific research, and its belief that it was theoretically possible to predict the behavior of everything from particles to people, was abruptly shaken in the 20th century. Peat focuses especially on how the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos theory brought about cataclysmic changes in our worldview.
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Review
"'Impressively wide-ranging study...an immensely thought-provoking book'. New Scientist 'Peat, one of science's more colourful historians, chronicles the shift [from reality to flexibility] with his usual creativity, drawing parallels between quantum physics, art and philosophy that will surprise many. It's good to see a - literally - different perspective'. Focus"

Book Info
Traces the rise and fall of the deterministic universe and shows the evolving influences that such disparate disciplines now have on one another. Drawing on the lessons we can learn from history, Peat also speculates on how we will manage our lives into the future. Softcover.