Anaximander

By Carlo Rovelli,

Book cover of Anaximander: And the Nature of Science

Book description

The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics illuminates the nature of science by exploring the revolutionary ideas of one of its great forefathers: the Greek philosopher Anaximander

Over two millennia ago, a Greek philosopher had a number of wondrous insights that paved the way to cosmology, physics, geography,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Anaximander as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I find Carlo Rovelli’s explanations of the sort of brain-mangling physics that usually seems beyond us non-mathematicians completely compelling.

In Anaximander, Rovelli tells the story of his hero, a man who figured out in 600 BCE that the earth was a physical body somehow floating in space. But it’s really the story of *how* Anaximander thought, not what he thought: he invented the scientific method – accretive, patient and skeptical.

Rovelli’s discussion of what that has meant since Anaximander, and what it means now, is just thrilling; and rather than being dry and abstract it’s full of historical curiosities…

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