Physics Philosophy Author:Sir James Jeans In this book Sir James Jeans asks questions that touch ourselves and our lives very closely, such as: — "Can we have any knowledge of the world outside us, other than we gain by the methods of science--observation and experiment?" — "Is the world ultimately spiritual and mental, or material in its ultimate essence?" — "Are we humans endowed with fr... more »ee will, or are we mere cogs in a vast machine, which must follow its predestined course until it finally runs down?"
This book starts simply, with a definition of physics and of philosophy. The author then gives a clear account of the progress of philosophical thought from the time of the Greeks, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Hegel, Spinoza, Descartes, and Kant, down to Sir Arthur Eddington, with whom Sir James Jeans finds several points of disagreement. He then traces the progress of physics since the time of Newton, and also shows how the modern theories of physics affect our ways of thought on religion, on free will, and on the nature of man.
"Physics and Philosophy" is written with the lively sparkle that marks all that Sir James writes. It is this quality that enables him to make abstruse arguments intelligible to the man off the street.« less