ACT Contact / FAQ About Events / Videos Merch / Subs Sign in/up Anaximander : And the Nature of Science Carlo Rovelli More by this author. He describes how the Greeks established that the Earth was not flat using a nearly identical scientific inquiry used by the Chinese to establish that the Earth was flat. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

He exercises that faith in an understanding that Anaximander was a naturalist; a man that expressed his knowledge of this world wholly independent, if not in contrast to, a metaphysical or religious understanding of the world. Given that these are different ISBN numbers, what has changed in this new version; the original was already 5 star.

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He attributes Anaximander’s analysis of the physical world as wholly devoid of a metaphysical or religious system as though Anaximander did not or could not attribute some aspect of his existence or existence in general to factors not fully attainable through observation of physical phenomena. I know it would not discredit his scientific inquiry or process and I trust Carlo Rovelli would agree. Half of the book is a collection of thoughts of Rovelli about the role of science and its main characteristics: simple but important concepts.

This new freedom to doubt received wisdom was crucial in Anaximander revealing what it took Chinese stargazers – advanced in many other respects – another 2,000 years to acknowledge: that the Earth was suspended in space. The rest of the book (about half of it) concentrates on what science is, the dangers of cultural relativism and understanding the world without gods.

Carlo Rovelli’s first book, now widely available in English, tells the origin story of scientific thinking: our rebellious ability to reimagine the world, again and again. In this formative book, published in English for the first time, he clearly senses Anaximander as a kindred spirit, though his claims for the Greek are based on scattered traces of evidence. In this book Rovelli presents his view of science and why he believes Anaximander deserves the credit for starting the enterprise.