The island of knowledge : the limits of science and the search for meaning / Marcelo Gleiser.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gleiser, Marcelo, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--Philosophy.

Science.

Meaning (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Basic Books, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why discovering the limits to science may be the most powerful discovery of allHow much can we know about the world? In this book, physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the limits of knowledge. In so doing, he reaches a provocative conclusion: science, like religion, is fundamentally limited as a tool for understanding the world. As science and its philosophical interpretations advance, we face the unsettling recognition of how much we don't know. Gleiser

Contents:

Table of Contents; Prologue to The Island of Knowledge; PART I: THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND THE NATURE OF THE HEAVENS; 1. The Will to Believe (Wherein we explore the role of belief and extrapolation in religion and in scientific creativity); 2. Beyond Space and Time (Wherein we explore how different religions have faced the question of the origin of all things); 3. To Be, or to Become? That Is the Question (Wherein we encounter the first philosophers of ancient Greece and delve into their remarkable notions about the meaning of reality)

4. Lessons from Plato's Dream (Wherein we explore how Plato and Aristotle dealt with the question of the First Cause and with the limits of knowledge)5. The Transformative Power of a New Observation Tool (Wherein we describe how three remarkable gentlemen, with access to new observational tools and endowed with remarkable creativity, transformed our worldview); 6. Cracking Open th Door of Heaven (Wherein we explore the genius of Isaac Newton and why his physics became a beacon of the human intellect)

7. Science as Nature's Grand Narrative (Wherein we argue that science is a human construction powerful in its range and its openness to change)8. The Plasticity of Spcae (Wherein we explore Einstein's special and general theories of relativity and their implication for our understanding of space and time); 9. The Restless Universe (Wherein we explore the expansion of the Universe and the appearance of a singularity at the origin of time); 10. There Is No Now (Wherein we argue that the notion of ""now"" is a cognitive fabrication)

11. Cosmic Blindness (Wherein we explore the concept of cosmic horizons and how it limits what we can know of the Universe)12. Splitting Infinities (Wherein we begin to explore the notion of the infinite, and how it translates into cosmology); 13. Rolling Downhill (Wherein we explain the notion of fake vacuum energy, how it relates to the famous Higgs boson, and how it may fuel an accelerated cosmic expansion); 14. Counting Universes (Wherein the concept of the multiverse is introduced and its physical and metaphysical implications explored)

15. Interlude: A Promenade Along the String Landscape (Wherein the notion of the string landscape is discussed, together with its anthropic motivation)16. Can We Test the Multiverse Hypothesis? (Wherein we explore whether the multiverse is a proper physical theory or mere speculation); PART II: FROM ALCHEMY TO THE QUANTUM: THE ELUSIVE NATURE OF REALITY; 17. Everything Floats in Nothingness (Wherein we explore the Greek notion of Atomism)

18. Admirable Force and Efficacy of Art and Nature (Wherein we visit the world of alchemy, an exploration of powers hidden in matter through method and spiritual discipline)

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-465-08073-1