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: #612362 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 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.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
"...[Peat] is an impassioned advocate of this perspective of uncertainty, building a progressively solid case for its significance..." -- What Is Enlightenment?, February-April 2004

"...impressively wide-ranging study ...immensely thought- provoking book" -- NEW SCIENTIST, June 2002

"...remarkably lucid…full of philosophical wisdom. ... An admirable companion." -- METAPSYCHOLOGY ONLINE REVIEW, June 2002

"Peat effectively presents problems he sees confronting the world, and he expresses confidence that they will be solved." -- Providence: Studies in Western Civilization, 2004

"Peat, one of science's more colourful historians, chronicles the shift with his usual creativity..." -- Focus, January 2003

"This book raises more questions than it answers. For that very reason it can be recommended as a good read." -- The Scientific and Medical Network Review, Summer 2004

"This book, which is reader-friendly even to the scientifically challenged, should go on every bookshelf." -- The Constant Reader, June 2002

"This well written and easily read book is intended for a general audience..." -- Physics World, July 2002

From the Inside Flap
"F. David Peat takes us on a wide-ranging, intellectual journey through the major scientific ideas of the 20th century, from physics and complexity to psychology and ecology. It's a grand, exhilarating tour of the post-modern world." -- Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein's Unfinished Symphony

"Lucid, engaging, provocative... simply brilliant. Peat delivers a fascinating take on why uncertainty in quantum physics intimately affects every aspect of our lives and thoughts. This timely book should be required reading for anybody who cares about where we all go from here." -- James Burke, author of Circles: Fifty Round-Trips Through History, Technology, Science, Culture

"The journey from certainty to uncertainty is not confined to a scientific tale. It is the story of how human thought has changed in every aspect so that we now live in an age where the only certainty is uncertainty. By making his story an intimate one and absorbing the reader with the very human nature of intellectual revolution, David Peat has done a wonderful job of illustrating how our vision of the universe has changed so radically, so quickly." -- Michael White, author of The Pope and the Heretic and Leonardo: The First Scientist

Customer Reviews

Very simple yet also very deep.
This is a wide reaching and clearly thought out presentation. The ideas presented here should form a basis for thinking about science as well as about how we see life in general. Clearly, an outstanding book.