Anaximander: And the Birth of Science

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The premise of this short book seemed unpromising: a physicist with no formal training in classics or history was apparently claiming that Anaximander, a Greek philosopher about whom almost nothing is known, is the spiritual father of modern science. But, in the event, it was much better than I'd expected. Rovelli is certainly not a historian, but he appears to know Latin and Greek, has read widely, and had enough interesting things to say that he kept me thoroughly entertained. I started this afternoon at Luton airport, and didn't put it down until I finished just now in Geneva. What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known? - Relative Information", Edge.org, 2017. Retrieved 13-9-2019 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.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories. Premio Pagine di Scienza di Rosignano for the book Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity [34] A large part of the book is concerned with the question of what "science" is, and in what ways it differentiates itself from religion. Rovelli's central argument is that the distinguishing mark of science is that it is always willing to question established authority. This, above all, is why he wants to argue that Anaximander should be considered the founder of the scientific tradition. Anaximander's teacher, according to later authors, was Thales of Miletus; but rather than simply accepting his master's ideas as holy writ and further developing them, Anaximander changed them in many important ways. Even if the story is just a myth - Rovelli is happy to admit that the facts are extremely uncertain - I think he has a good point. This way of reasoning about things is historically unusual. The philosophical/scientific tradition may not have started exactly here, but it began around this point in time, and, if nothing else, Anaximander is a nice way of symbolizing the break with what had gone before.Anassimandro è uno dei filosofi pre-socratici, che spesso scivola anonimo tra le prime lezioni di filosofia al liceo. Ma in questo libro (e ricordo un simile accenno nei documentari di Carl Sagan) lo si eleva a prima incarnazione storica dello spirito "scientifico", non essendosi accontentato nelle sue spiegazioni dei fenomeni naturali di tirare in ballo gli dei, ma avendo elaborato una proposta del tutto fisica. van Fraassen, Bas C. (11 July 2009). "Rovelli's World" (PDF). Foundations of Physics. 40 (4): 390–417. Bibcode: 2010FoPh...40..390V. doi: 10.1007/s10701-009-9326-5. S2CID 17217776. Consegnato a Carlo Rovelli il premio "Alassio per l'Informazione Culturale" ". Ecodisavona (in Italian) . Retrieved 6 April 2018.

Il quarto Premio Larderello al fisico Carlo Rovelli". il Tirreno (in Italian). 18 August 2015 . Retrieved 6 April 2018. knowledge as a progression of dialogue and debate based on questioning what has previously been thought Personally, an eye-opening read & I’m definitely indulged in the scientific thinking & methodology part of this book which I hoped I’ve read during my postgrad studies. I fancy reading on/discovering thinkers & undoubtedly, it's one of the best read on scientific thought, process, & pioneering scientific frameworks.

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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. ■ Carlo Rovelli was born in Verona, Italy, on 3 May 1956. He attended the Liceo Classico Scipione Maffei in Verona. In the 1970s, he participated in the student political movements in Italian universities. He was involved with the free political radio stations Radio Alice in Bologna and Radio Anguana in Verona, which he helped found. [7] In conjunction with his political activity, he was charged, but later released, for crimes of opinion related to the book Fatti Nostri, which he co-authored with Enrico Palandri, Maurizio Torrealta, and Claudio Piersanti. [8] Anaximander was one of the world’s first scientists and had some amazingly modern theories, as Carlo Rovelli reveals

Rovelli, a contemporary physicist, uses the accomplishments of Anaximander of Miletus, the pre-Socratic thinker who is credited with writing the first prose work and whom Rovelli describes as the first scientist, as a springboard for meditations on the nature of science and its history. The book is well-written, and although Rovelli is not a historian or philosopher of science I didn't find anything which was obviously wrong, as I often do with books about ancient philosophy.Rovelli infatti non si accontenta del ruolo "tecnico" della scienza, di fare previsioni affidabili. Questo è, sì, il metodo per validarne In the science fiction novel Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, set in a future century, Rovelli and Lee Smolin appear as historical characters in the history of physics. In the novel, Loop quantum gravity has merged to string theory to give a comprehensive physical theory of the world. Anaximander drew up the first map of the known world. In the generation following him, another Milesian, Hecataeus, expanded this map. Hecataeus’s map served then as the basis for all other ancient (and hence modern) maps.