Feeling Reality (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 00:35 (4811 days ago) @ David Turell

Here is a synopsis of a book that doubts that we can ever truly know our reality, and offers good reasons:-Lawless but not flawless-It must be a temptation, after retiring as a physicist, to go beyond one's research specialism and write a book outlining your "philosophy" of science and the scientific method. The latest offering in that mould is Lawless Universe by Joe Rosen who was, until retirement, a theorist at the universities of Tel Aviv and Central Arkansas with a particular interest in symmetry. After ploughing through the nature of science, theory and the difference between objectivity and subjectivity, Rosen then comes to the meat of the matter ... his view that science, despite its successes, can only explain part of what the universe is about. So cosmology, for example, is metaphysics, not science, because we cannot run reproducible experiments on new universes; cosmology lets us describe the universe, but not explain it. Moreover, as quantum theory cannot be a literal description of objective reality, then, in Rosen's view, objective reality must be mostly hidden from us. Reality, in other words, transcends nature and surpasses human understanding. Quite how scientific laws can then exist in an intrinsically orderless universe is a bit unclear, but Rosen is a genial enough guide through some mind-bending stuff. -• 2010 Johns Hopkins University Press £39.00/$75.00 hb £15.50/$30.00 pb 184pp-What do you think? Too pessimistic?