The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy

The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy
ISBN-10
1316123839
ISBN-13
9781316123836
Category
Science
Language
English
Published
2014-12-08
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Authors
Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Lee Smolin

Description

Cosmology is in crisis. The more we discover, the more puzzling the universe appears to be. How and why are the laws of nature what they are? A philosopher and a physicist, world-renowned for their radical ideas in their fields, argue for a revolution. To keep cosmology scientific, we must replace the old view in which the universe is governed by immutable laws by a new one in which laws evolve. Then we can hope to explain them. The revolution that Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin propose relies on three central ideas. There is only one universe at a time. Time is real: everything in the structure and regularities of nature changes sooner or later. Mathematics, which has trouble with time, is not the oracle of nature and the prophet of science; it is simply a tool with great power and immense limitations. The argument is readily accessible to non-scientists as well as to the physicists and cosmologists whom it challenges.

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