Anaximander: And the Birth of Science

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The end of this book discusses theories for the origin of religion, and, as often happens when I read such theories, I’m left feeling unconvinced. I started reading The Bicameral Mind last year, but felt it was, as the author here says about other things – an interesting idea, but also that ideas are two-a-penny, and not nearly enough on their own. He appears to have more time for the bicameral mind than I did, but it isn't entirely clear to me why. Personally, I tend to think that humans are narrative centred creatures – we make meaning from the scraps of evidence we find about us, and that is one of the key reasons why science’s radical doubt proves so important for us, because without it we will, quite literally, believe just about anything. A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting. A deep-thinking, restlessly inquiring spirit’: Carlo Rovelli. Photograph: Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images

It’s hard to make an assessment of this book. On its face, it seems to be a historical study of the place of Anaximander in the development of modern science. And, for the first half of the book, it really is that. But from there, Rovelli takes off into a much more loosely bound discussion of truth, reality, relativism, religion, language, and the fate of the world. Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed in the heavens above and the Earth below. Then, on the Ionian coast, a Greek philosopher named Anaximander set in motion a revolution. He not only conceived that the Earth floats in space, but also that animals evolve, that storms and earthquakes are natural, not supernatural, that the world can be mapped and, above all, that progress is made by the endless search for knowledge.The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics illuminates the nature of science throughtherevolutionaryideas ofthe Greek philosopher Anaximander Premio letterario Galileo per la divulgazione scientifica [ it] for the book Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity Our knowledge, like the Earth, floats in nothingness,” Mr Rovelli says. “Its provisional nature and the underlying void do not make life meaningless; they make it more precious.” This book offers a timely rebuttal to those who would sacrifice the vital legacy of Western science—and the progress that comes with it—on the altar of cultural sensitivity or by retreating to the safety of metaphysical revelation. ■ Anaximander wrote a treatise in prose, On Nature (Περι ́ φυ ́σεως), now lost. Only one fragment remains, quoted by Simplicius of Cilicia in his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics… Much has been written about this handful of obscure words, which can easily inspire fanciful interpretations. It is always difficult to interpret a passage out of its context with any degree of certainty. It is not this fragment of direct evidence that tells us what is interesting in Anaximander’s ideas. Instead, many Greek sources relay the content of Anaximander’s book… Ma non si spaventi il lettore digiuno di studi umanistici (come, per dire, me): la lettura scorre sempre facile, il dibattito non si fa mai sterilmente accademico, animato com'è dalla prosa energica dell'autore, e dal suo ottimismo di fondo.

Carlo Rovelli on why time is not what it seems". BBC Radio 4. The Life Scientific. BBC . Retrieved 30 January 2020. Rovelli has written a book on the Greek philosopher Anaximander, published in France, Italy, US [21] and Brazil. The book analyses the main aspects of scientific thinking and articulates Rovelli's views on science. Anaximander is presented in the book as a main initiator of scientific thinking. For history, I found that Rovelli did a very good and thorough job of explaining things. I was astonished to learn that the Chinese thought the Earth was flat until Jesuit missionaries in the late 1500s came, and I think it an interesting example of a scientific idea being a world changer (in a literal sense).The transformation of one thing into another is regulated by “necessity,” which determines how phenomena unfold in time. Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.