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John D. Barrow - The world within the world

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Until recently popular science has produced neither rigorously scientific works nor especially popular ones. Only in the last three or four years have scientists begun to realize the fields full potential with books aimed at the intelligent non-scientist presenting more challenging subjects previously reserved for scholars. Still, none of these studies fully addresses the question of whether laws of Nature really exist and are just waiting to be discovered; or how the notion of laws of Nature arose and how they can be so well described by mathematics; or even how our own existence limits what we can learn about the Universe. John D. Barrow, renowned scientist and philosopher of science, fills the gap by responding to these and myriad other questions in this remarkably wide-ranging interdisciplinary study of the evolving concept of laws of Nature. Tackling the philosophical and theological problems raised by modern physics and mathematics, he goes well beyond the familiar ground of relativity and quantum theory. From the magical notions of primitive cultures to the latest ideas about chaos, black holes, inflation, and superstrings, he traces the gradual development of our understanding of what laws of Nature mean and how we have come to know them. Written in a serious but non-technical style, The World Within the World will fascinate scientists, philosophers, and general readers alike.

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Page iii The World Within the World John D Barrow Professor Astronomy - photo 1
Page iii
The World Within the World
John D. Barrow
Professor, Astronomy Centre,
University of Sussex
Oxford New York
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

title:The World Within the World
author:Barrow, John D.
publisher:Oxford University Press
isbn10 | asin:0192861085
print isbn13:9780192861085
ebook isbn13:9780585153698
language:English
subjectPhysics--Popular works, Science--Popular works, Science--Philosophy--Popular works, Cosmology--Popular works.
publication date:1990
lcc:QC24.5.B37 1990eb
ddc:500.2
subject:Physics--Popular works, Science--Popular works, Science--Philosophy--Popular works, Cosmology--Popular works.
Page iv
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press
John D. Barrow 1988
First published in 1988 by Oxford University Press First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback 1990 (with corrections)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Barrow, John D., 1952
The world within the world/John D. Barrow.
Bibliography : p.
Includes index.
1. PhysicsPopular works. 2. SciencePopular works.
3. SciencePhilosophyPopular works. 4. CosmologyPopular works. I. Title.
QC24.5.B37 1990 500.2dc19 87-31539
ISBN 0-19-286108-5
5 7 9 10 8 6
Printed in Great Britain by Bookcraft Ltd Midsomer Norton, Avon
Page v
Picture 2
All these have never yet been seenBut scientists who ought to know, Assure us that they must be so... Oh! let us never, never doubt What nobody is sure about!
Hilaire Belloc
Picture 3
Art is a lie that lets us recognize the truth.
Pablo Picasso
Picture 4
The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.
Mary Heaton Vorse
Page vi
To Lois and Louise
Page vii
Preface
In recent years there has been a vast increase in the publication rate of so-called 'popular' science books. Regardless of whether they do indeed turn out to be popular with anybody but their authors, their common aim has been to explain in simple terms the constant stream of new ideas and discoveries that have emerged in the fundamental sciences during the last decade. In this book the aim is not simply to pick again upon one of these esoteric fields at the frontiers of fundamental science and attempt to explain it in simple terms. Rather, it is to pick upon the traditional unspoken assumptions to which we owe all these abstract and pragmatic developments: that the Universe is ordered, that it is logical, that it is mathematical, that it is predictable, that it is governed by something outside ourselves which is the same everywhere and everywhen, but which has a deep resonance with the workings of our own minds: to explore something of the origin and possible meanings of the idea that there exist 'laws of Nature' and some of the unsuspected realms that such an idea has led us. This quest will lead us from pre-history to the evolutionary development of key notions in fundamental physical science and the attendant philosophy it has helped to shape. Time and again it will bring us back to old questions in a new guise: sharpened, widened, and deepened by the unvisualizable worlds of inner and outer space where we find Nature's logic laid bare by that complexity masquerading as simplicity that we have come to recognize as the hallmark of all natural phenomena. Are there really laws of Nature that exist out there independently of our way of thinking waiting to be discovered, or are they just the most convenient way of describing things that we have been able to write down? Are these natural laws the same everywhere? Are there places where they cease to hold? Can they change with time? Indeed, is it possible that there aren't really any laws of Nature at all? Why is the language of mathematics found to offer us such a ready translation of the Universe's workings? What are the implications of our own existence for our interpretation of the Universe's structure? Do we have the intellectual capability to understand the deepest principles behind the harmony and complexity of Nature?
Questions of this sort used to be primarily the preserve of philosophers, but in recent years physicists and cosmologists have found their theorizing taking them into realms where answers to such extraordinary conundrums as 'can the Universe be created out of nothing?' may have consequences for measurable quantities. Traditional dogmas as to what criteria must be met by a body of ideas for it to qualify as a 'science' now seem curiously inappropriate in the face of problems and studies far removed from the human enterprise. Some scientists
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