Impossibility - The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits (Paperback, Reissue)

The author has strung together a whole heap of entertaining ideas on the thread of the limits of the possible - the limits of science, the human mind, cosmology and much more besides. This is Barrow at his best, getting a lot of deep ideas across relatively painlessly, and helping to show that in science everything is connected to everything else. (Kirkus UK)

What can we never do? The end of each century leads to a stocktaking of human achievement and our expectations about the future. This new book by John D. Barrow looks at what limits there might be to human discovery, and what we might find, ultimately, to be unknowable, undoable, or unthinkable. Science is a big success story, but where will it end? And indeed, will it end? Weaving together a tapestry of surprises, Barrow explores the frontiers of knowledge. We find that the notion of 'impossibilty' has played a striking role in our thinking. Surrealism, impossible figures, time travel, paradoxes of logic and perspective, theological speculations about Beings for whom nothing is impossible - all stimulate us to contemplate something morethan what is. This is no ordinary look at the limits of science. Usingsimple explanations, it shows the reader that impossibility is a deep and powerful notion; that any Universe complex enough to contain conscious beings will contain limits on what those beings can know about their Universe; that what we cannot know defines reality as surely as what we can know.

General

Imprint:	Vintage
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	March 1999
Authors:	John D. Barrow
Dimensions:	198 x 128 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	279
Edition:	Reissue
ISBN-13:	978-0-09-977211-8
Categories:	Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Philosophy of science Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Impact of science & technology on society Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > Cosmology & the universe Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Epistemology, theory of knowledge Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Epistemology, theory of knowledge
LSN:	0-09-977211-6
Barcode:	9780099772118

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