-
The Physicist and the Philosopher
- Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
On April 6, 1922, in Paris, Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson publicly debated the nature of time. Einstein considered Bergson's theory of time to be a soft, psychological notion, irreconcilable with the quantitative realities of physics. Bergson, who gained fame as a philosopher by arguing that time should not be understood exclusively through the lens of science, criticized Einstein's theory of time for being a metaphysics grafted onto science, one that ignored the intuitive aspects of time. The Physicist and the Philosopher tells the remarkable story of how this explosive debate transformed our understanding of time and drove a rift between science and the humanities that persists today.
Jimena Canales introduces listeners to the revolutionary ideas of Einstein and Bergson, describes how they dramatically collided in Paris, and traces how this clash of worldviews reverberated across the 20th century. She shows how it provoked responses from figures such as Bertrand Russell and Martin Heidegger and carried repercussions for American pragmatism, logical positivism, phenomenology, and quantum mechanics. Canales explains how the new technologies of the period - such as wristwatches, radio, and film - helped to shape people's conceptions of time and further polarized the public debate. She also discusses how Bergson and Einstein, toward the ends of their lives, each reflected on his rival's legacy - Bergson during the Nazi occupation of Paris and Einstein in the context of the first hydrogen bomb explosion.
The Physicist and the Philosopher reveals how scientific truth was placed on trial in a divided century marked by a new sense of time.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Bedeviled
- A Shadow History of Demons in Science
- By: Jimena Canales
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments―experiments that can only be done in the imagination―and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology.
-
-
ruined by the narration
- By Kindle Customer on 06-25-21
By: Jimena Canales
-
An Introduction to Metaphysics
- By: Henri Bergson
- Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson
- Length: 2 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The basic principles that Bergson articulates, especially his way of thinking about reality as a dynamic process and his view of human beings as creative and evolving, should be helpful to anyone who seeks to go beyond simply dealing with the practical demands of daily life and consider the nature of things. Of special importance is Bergson’s claim that it is both possible and necessary to know from the inside rather than confining our attention to external perspectives and points of view. Intuition is able to get beyond what is relative and place us inside reality.
-
-
Highly recommend this
- By M.Biblioswine on 01-21-22
By: Henri Bergson
-
Time and Free Will
- An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness
- By: Henri Bergson
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was the leading French philosopher of the first half of the 20th century. Near the end of his life when he was forced to register with the police in Nazi occupied France he wrote: ‘Academic. Philosopher. Nobel prize winner. Jew.’ Time and Free Will, his doctoral thesis, was published as a book in 1889 and attacks and rejects the mechanistic view of causality described in Kant’s version of space and time and proceeds to attempt to define free-will and consciousness by separating space and time.
By: Henri Bergson
-
Matter and Memory
- By: Henri Bergson
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matter and Memory, (Matière et Mémoire), published in 1896, was the second book written by Henri Bergson (1859-1941), one of the leading French philosophers of his age. It followed Time and Free Will (1889) and helped to establish him as a major force in anti-mechanistic thought, opposing the trend towards uncompromisingly secular and scientific views. However, when Matter and Memory appeared, Bergson was 39 and had yet to become the hugely influential figure he became in the first decades of the 20th century.
By: Henri Bergson
-
Being and Time
- By: Martin Heidegger
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain, Taylor Carman
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Being and Time was published in 1927 during the Weimar period in Germany, a time of political, social and economic turmoil. Heidegger himself did not escape the pressures and his nationalism, and undeniable anti-Semitism in the following decades cast a shadow over the man, but not the work. Being and Time is not coloured by expressions of his later views (unlike other writings) and remains an outstanding document.
-
-
Surprised it works as audio
- By Anonymous on 02-02-20
By: Martin Heidegger
-
Philosophical Investigations
- By: Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. E. M. Anscombe - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Booth
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Philosophical Investigations was published in 1953, two years after the death of its author. In the preface written in Cambridge in 1945 where he was professor of philosophy he states: ‘Four years ago I had occasion to re-read my first book (the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and to explain its ideas to someone. It suddenly seemed to me that I should publish those old thoughts and the new ones together: that the latter could be seen in the right light only by contrast with and against the background of my old way of thinking.’
-
-
One of the Masterpieces of 20th Philosophy
- By Oberon on 12-30-20
By: Ludwig Wittgenstein, and others
-
Bedeviled
- A Shadow History of Demons in Science
- By: Jimena Canales
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments―experiments that can only be done in the imagination―and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology.
-
-
ruined by the narration
- By Kindle Customer on 06-25-21
By: Jimena Canales
-
An Introduction to Metaphysics
- By: Henri Bergson
- Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson
- Length: 2 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The basic principles that Bergson articulates, especially his way of thinking about reality as a dynamic process and his view of human beings as creative and evolving, should be helpful to anyone who seeks to go beyond simply dealing with the practical demands of daily life and consider the nature of things. Of special importance is Bergson’s claim that it is both possible and necessary to know from the inside rather than confining our attention to external perspectives and points of view. Intuition is able to get beyond what is relative and place us inside reality.
-
-
Highly recommend this
- By M.Biblioswine on 01-21-22
By: Henri Bergson
-
Time and Free Will
- An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness
- By: Henri Bergson
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was the leading French philosopher of the first half of the 20th century. Near the end of his life when he was forced to register with the police in Nazi occupied France he wrote: ‘Academic. Philosopher. Nobel prize winner. Jew.’ Time and Free Will, his doctoral thesis, was published as a book in 1889 and attacks and rejects the mechanistic view of causality described in Kant’s version of space and time and proceeds to attempt to define free-will and consciousness by separating space and time.
By: Henri Bergson
-
Matter and Memory
- By: Henri Bergson
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matter and Memory, (Matière et Mémoire), published in 1896, was the second book written by Henri Bergson (1859-1941), one of the leading French philosophers of his age. It followed Time and Free Will (1889) and helped to establish him as a major force in anti-mechanistic thought, opposing the trend towards uncompromisingly secular and scientific views. However, when Matter and Memory appeared, Bergson was 39 and had yet to become the hugely influential figure he became in the first decades of the 20th century.
By: Henri Bergson
-
Being and Time
- By: Martin Heidegger
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain, Taylor Carman
- Length: 23 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Being and Time was published in 1927 during the Weimar period in Germany, a time of political, social and economic turmoil. Heidegger himself did not escape the pressures and his nationalism, and undeniable anti-Semitism in the following decades cast a shadow over the man, but not the work. Being and Time is not coloured by expressions of his later views (unlike other writings) and remains an outstanding document.
-
-
Surprised it works as audio
- By Anonymous on 02-02-20
By: Martin Heidegger
-
Philosophical Investigations
- By: Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. E. M. Anscombe - translator
- Narrated by: Jonathan Booth
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Philosophical Investigations was published in 1953, two years after the death of its author. In the preface written in Cambridge in 1945 where he was professor of philosophy he states: ‘Four years ago I had occasion to re-read my first book (the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and to explain its ideas to someone. It suddenly seemed to me that I should publish those old thoughts and the new ones together: that the latter could be seen in the right light only by contrast with and against the background of my old way of thinking.’
-
-
One of the Masterpieces of 20th Philosophy
- By Oberon on 12-30-20
By: Ludwig Wittgenstein, and others
-
The Order of Time
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most listeners, this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it appears. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where, at the most fundamental level, time disappears.
-
-
Rovelli is a Genius
- By Mike on 05-11-18
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
The Poverty of Historicism
- By: Karl Popper
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Karl Popper's THE POVERTY OF HISTORICISM is one of the most important books on the social sciences to have appeared since the Second World War. It is also the work of one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century, and a devastating criticism of the idea that there are laws of development in history and that human beings are able to discover them. Popper dedicated the book to all those who fell victim to the fascist and communist belief in Inexorable Laws of Historical Destiny
-
-
should be required reading
- By Anonymous User on 04-01-24
By: Karl Popper
-
Humanly Possible
- Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humanism is an expansive tradition of thought that places shared humanity, cultural vibrancy, and moral responsibility at the center of our lives. For centuries, this worldview has inspired people to make their choices by principles of freethinking, intellectual inquiry, fellow feeling, and optimism. In this sweeping new history, Sarah Bakewell, herself a lifelong humanist, illuminates the very personal, individual, and, well, human matter of humanism and takes listeners on a grand intellectual adventure.
-
-
A glimmer of hope
- By RAY MONTECALVO on 04-14-23
By: Sarah Bakewell
-
At the Existentialist Café
- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"
-
-
Consistent look at incoherent philosophy
- By Gary on 06-19-16
By: Sarah Bakewell
-
Asian Journals
- India and Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
- By: Joseph Campbell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
-
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
-
Ideas
- By: Edmund Husserl
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As philosophy professor Taylor Carman explains in his helpful introduction, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was the founder of modern phenomenology, one of the most important and influential movements of the 20th century. Ideas, published in 1913 – its full title is Ideas for a Pure Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy – was the key work. It is arguably ‘the most fundamental and comprehensive statement of the fundamental principles of Husserl’s mature philosophy’.
-
-
Husserl WILL Change How You Think About Philosophy
- By POL-PHL-ECO on 05-12-20
By: Edmund Husserl
-
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- By: Thomas S. Kuhn
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.
-
-
The problem is not with the book
- By Marcus on 08-09-09
By: Thomas S. Kuhn
-
Wittgenstein
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: A. C. Grayling
- Narrated by: Kyle Munley
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an extraordinarily original thinker, whose influence on 20th-century thinking far outside the bounds of philosophy alone. In this engaging Introduction, A. C. Grayling makes Wittgenstein's thought accessible to the general listener by explaining the nature and impact of Wittgenstein's views. He describes both his early and later philosophy, the differences and connections between them, and gives a fresh assessment of Wittgenstein's continuing influence on contemporary thought.
-
-
Track -ta- toose?
- By sleight on 07-13-22
By: A. C. Grayling
-
William Blake vs the World
- By: John Higgs
- Narrated by: John Higgs
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake.
-
-
Best book ever
- By idamae on 11-04-22
By: John Higgs
-
Uncertainty
- Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
- By: David Lindley
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" challenged centuries of scientific understanding, placed him in direct opposition to Albert Einstein, and put Niels Bohr in the middle of one of the most heated debates in scientific history. Heisenberg's theorem stated that there were physical limits to what we could know about sub-atomic particles; this "uncertainty" would have shocking implications.
-
-
fascinating insight into the real drama of physics
- By Ryan on 09-07-10
By: David Lindley
-
Journey to the Edge of Reason
- The Life of Kurt Gödel
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable - continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life.
-
-
Interesting story of a great mathematician
- By James Orlin on 04-28-22
-
What Is Metaphysics, What Is Philosophy and Other Writings
- By: Martin Heidegger
- Narrated by: Martyn Swain
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This recording contains four important and related works by Heidegger: 'What Is Philosophy', 'What Is Metaphysics', 'On the Essence of Truth' and 'The Question of Being'.
-
-
Highly performed 🎭
- By Roman Greenberg on 09-06-22
By: Martin Heidegger
Related to this topic
-
Uncertainty
- Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
- By: David Lindley
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" challenged centuries of scientific understanding, placed him in direct opposition to Albert Einstein, and put Niels Bohr in the middle of one of the most heated debates in scientific history. Heisenberg's theorem stated that there were physical limits to what we could know about sub-atomic particles; this "uncertainty" would have shocking implications.
-
-
fascinating insight into the real drama of physics
- By Ryan on 09-07-10
By: David Lindley
-
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- By: Thomas S. Kuhn
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.
-
-
The problem is not with the book
- By Marcus on 08-09-09
By: Thomas S. Kuhn
-
What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
-
-
Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
- By James S. on 03-31-18
By: Adam Becker
-
Is God a Mathematician?
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
-
-
Origins of Mathematics
- By Rick B on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
-
The Invention of Science
- A New History of the Scientific Revolution
- By: David Wootton
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fascinating history spanning continents and centuries, historian David Wootton offers a lively defense of science, revealing why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. The Invention of Science goes back 500 years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring the factors that led to its birth and the people who made it happen. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that developed independently.
-
-
A Good Read Spoiled
- By David A. Donnelly on 12-23-16
By: David Wootton
-
Einstein and the Quantum
- The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
- By: A. Douglas Stone
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light - the core of what we now know as quantum theory - than he did about relativity.
-
-
educational and fun
- By Amjad on 12-04-13
By: A. Douglas Stone
-
Uncertainty
- Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science
- By: David Lindley
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" challenged centuries of scientific understanding, placed him in direct opposition to Albert Einstein, and put Niels Bohr in the middle of one of the most heated debates in scientific history. Heisenberg's theorem stated that there were physical limits to what we could know about sub-atomic particles; this "uncertainty" would have shocking implications.
-
-
fascinating insight into the real drama of physics
- By Ryan on 09-07-10
By: David Lindley
-
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- By: Thomas S. Kuhn
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.
-
-
The problem is not with the book
- By Marcus on 08-09-09
By: Thomas S. Kuhn
-
What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
-
-
Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
- By James S. on 03-31-18
By: Adam Becker
-
Is God a Mathematician?
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true.
-
-
Origins of Mathematics
- By Rick B on 07-08-21
By: Mario Livio
-
The Invention of Science
- A New History of the Scientific Revolution
- By: David Wootton
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fascinating history spanning continents and centuries, historian David Wootton offers a lively defense of science, revealing why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. The Invention of Science goes back 500 years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring the factors that led to its birth and the people who made it happen. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that developed independently.
-
-
A Good Read Spoiled
- By David A. Donnelly on 12-23-16
By: David Wootton
-
Einstein and the Quantum
- The Quest of the Valiant Swabian
- By: A. Douglas Stone
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light - the core of what we now know as quantum theory - than he did about relativity.
-
-
educational and fun
- By Amjad on 12-04-13
By: A. Douglas Stone
-
The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved
- How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two prodigies ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. The first popular account of the mathematics of symmetry and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.
-
-
Historical Perspective Appreciated
- By Michael Hanrahan on 01-22-20
By: Mario Livio
-
The Devil's Delusion
- Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions
- By: David Berlinski
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Militant atheism is on the rise. In recent years, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have produced a steady stream of best-selling books denigrating religious belief. These authors are merely the leading edge of a larger movement that includes much of the scientific community. In response, mathematician David Berlinski, himself a secular Jew, delivers a biting defense of religious thought.
-
-
Riddled With Problems
- By Ben on 11-01-13
By: David Berlinski
-
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
-
-
A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
-
Significant Figures
- The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Significant Figures, acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart introduces the visionaries of mathematics throughout history. Delving into the lives of twenty-five great mathematicians, Stewart examines the roles they played in creating, inventing, and discovering the mathematics we use today. Through these short biographies, we get acquainted with the history of mathematics.
-
-
Beware
- By Anton Kurtz on 12-08-18
By: Ian Stewart
-
A Theory of Everything (That Matters)
- A Brief Guide to Einstein, Relativity, and His Surprising Thoughts on God
- By: Alister McGrath
- Narrated by: Frazer Douglas
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Einstein’s revolutionary scientific ideas have transformed our world, ushering in the nuclear age. The current pace of scientific and technological progress is simply astounding. So is there any place for faith in such a world? Einstein himself gave careful thought to the deepest questions of life. His towering intellectual status means he is someone worth listening to when we think through the big questions of life.
-
-
Makes you think...
- By Katy Bagdon on 10-10-19
By: Alister McGrath
-
The Landscape of History
- How Historians Map the Past
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is history, and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of History provides a searching look at the historian's craft as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today.
-
-
Excellent Book!
- By Billy on 09-15-18
-
The Infinity Puzzle
- Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The second half of the 20th century witnessed a scientific gold rush as physicists raced to chart the inner workings of the atom. The stakes were high, the questions were big, and there were Nobel Prizes and everlasting glory to be won. Many mysteries of the atom came unraveled, but one remained intractable-what Frank Close calls the "Infinity Puzzle."
-
-
Succinct exposition
- By Gary on 06-26-12
By: Frank Close
-
A Brief History of Infinity: The Quest to Think the Unthinkable
- Brief Histories
- By: Brian Clegg
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.' Douglas Adams, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.We human beings have trouble with infinity - yet infinity is a surprisingly human subject. Philosophers and mathematicians have gone mad contemplating its nature and complexity - yet it is a concept routinely used by schoolchildren. Exploring the infinite is a
-
-
Really not great in Audio, not great otherwise
- By Michael on 03-29-13
By: Brian Clegg
-
In Defense of History
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard J. Evans shows us how historians manage to extract meaning from the recalcitrant past. To materials that are frustratingly meager, or overwhelmingly profuse, they bring an array of tools that range from agreed-upon rules of documentation to the critical application of social and economic theory, all employed with the aim of reconstructing a verifiable, usable past. Evans defends this commitment to historical knowledge from the attacks of postmodernist critics who deny the possibility of achieving any kind of certain knowledge about the past.
-
-
Enlightening
- By David A on 07-03-18
By: Richard J. Evans
-
The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire
- By: Richard Carrier
- Narrated by: Richard Carrier
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extensive sequel to Science Education in the Early Roman Empire, Dr. Richard Carrier explores the social history of scientists in the Roman era. Was science in decline or experiencing a revival under the Romans? What was an ancient scientist thought to be and do? Who were they, and who funded their research? And how did pagans differ from their Christian peers in their views toward science and scientists?
-
-
This Book is a Bombshell
- By James on 06-15-18
By: Richard Carrier
-
The Story of Western Science
- From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory
- By: Susan Wise Bauer
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.
-
-
Good text, tedious book structure
- By Diane K. on 10-07-15
By: Susan Wise Bauer
-
Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers
- The Ideas That Have Shaped Our World
- By: Philip Stokes
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This engaging and accessible book invites the listener to explore the questions and arguments of philosophy through the work of 100 of the greatest thinkers within the Western intellectual tradition - covering philosophical, scientific, political, and religious thought over a period of 2500 years.
-
-
Unpretentious, honest, with a big picture
- By Mike S. on 05-29-17
By: Philip Stokes
What listeners say about The Physicist and the Philosopher
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- L
- 08-04-23
Would have liked more
An interesting book, but I would have liked more about each theorist’s professional interests outside the one topic of relativity. The author has a very clear bias towards Bergson!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Richard
- 03-14-18
Enjoyable History of Physics and Philosophy
I'm about half way through and I find this book a nice mixture of history, physics, and philosophy. It's discusses, in a fairly unique way, ideas and topics at the intersection of physics, philosophy, scientific, cultural, and some politics, etc.
The cast of characters, mostly around the early 20th century is diverse and interesting. Of course, there's Einstein and Bergson, but also Poincare, Bertrand Russel, A.N. Whitehead, Eddington, Paul Langevin, Lorentz, Henri Bequerels' son, and many more. Mathematicians, logicians, philosophers, physicists, etc.
It's also interesting that no one today seems to know Bergson, outside of philosophy. My "Companion to the Philosophers" encyclopedia has a brief summary of Bergson, but not a word about "Duration and Simultaneity", nor anything about him and Einstein.
I'm not finding Bergson that interesting, my interest lies in this period of time when the Theory of Relativity was ascending, how people were reacting to it and/or taking sides. It is enjoyable because it mixes so many interesting ideas and people in the story. It is definitely worth a listen. A teeny pet-peeve, just a geek's complaint: the narrator refers to the Perihelion of Mercury shifting in "inches" when it is clearly arc-seconds. This is forgivable of course, but it always bugs me that narrators never seem to have decent scientific facility! Otherwise the narrator is fine.
This is a unique and different perspective on a well-covered time period. If you're a fan of the development of Relativity or this period, it will be of interest. It's not technically deep from a physics point of view, though it is appropriately in-depth where needed. For those who like a multi-disciplinary multi-perspective approach to these topics, this is a very enjoyable book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrew
- 01-07-18
An OMG Experience
This has changed the way I see the way modern history works. That a hugely respected and influential thinker like Bergson should just disappear from public consciousness in less than a lifetime is astonishing.
This is a must-read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jorge Yanez
- 05-04-17
History of the Universe
Block Universe where past present and future coexist versus the Trascendental Eternal Now where the Universe always Was Is and Will be.(no Big Bang)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gary
- 07-05-15
Nice intersection between Science and Philosophy
Einstein's block universe takes Time out of the universe. Time after Einstein can be said to be an illusion, time is that which exist so that everything doesn't happen at once. Henri Bergson, probably the most famous 20th century philosopher that most people have never heard of, but almost everyone has heard of his arguments ('elan vital', 'creative evolution', 'intuitive time'), wanted to put man and his intuitive understanding of time back into the center stage of the universe.
If I were to write a movie where the protagonist was going to time travel, I would have her reading a copy of this book. Time is not what most of us think it is and by seeing if from the perspective of these two great minds adds to my appreciation for the nuances involved.
I have a hard time finding new books in science or philosophy which are not just a rehash of other recent books that I have already read. This author manages to talk about her subject matter in a surprisingly refreshing manner. She gives the reader the connections and the nuances involved in the story. Einstein did make the 'original sin' (his words) of entwining the absolute speed of light with a physical clock. That is the ultimate problem that Bergson has with Einstein, the physical understanding of time with the universe's understanding of Time. Einstein (and as science always does) will mix the concrete (empirical) with the abstract (intellectual) and develops a theory about reality.
The author draws the connection with Bergson's view point to Husserl's Phenomenology, to Heidegger's Being (Daisen), and to the start of the Existentialists. I did not realize, for example, that Heidegger's 'Being and Time' was such a strong reaction against Einstein. That Heidegger wanted to put the 'becoming' back into the world from the being of being (Daisen) because Time (that's 'time' with a capital 'T") was being taken out of the world.
The book not only equally considers the science and the philosophy at the period under consideration it also gives a subtle discussion about the nature of science. Copernicus makes the sun the center of the solar system, but does that mean it's only that because it makes the mathematics easier to play with or is it really that way. Einstein takes out a universal time by taking out simultaneity and replacing it with the speed of light as a constant and a physical clock (and the equivalence principle, where inertia mass is equivalent to heavy mass, but the author seldom talks about gravity).
Einstein never accepted quantum physics even though he is one of its principal creators because of his discovery of the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion. His General Theory is based on continuity. Bergson's approach is more discrete thus more attuned with quantum physics. The author points out how in some ways the science of quantum physics started going towards Bergson.
I really appreciate an accessible book that takes me way beyond the current popular science and philosophy books and not just a rehash of things I already know, and therefore I would recommend this book for those who love the intersection between science and philosophy and like to be challenged with a story that has not already been told in such depth.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M.Biblioswine
- 11-27-23
It is nice to see a book about Bergson that he didn't write
It is nice to see a book on Bergson on Audible that he didn't write. With that said, the discussion of his work is limited. The author pays a lot more attention to Einstein and just about everyone else at the time than Bergson.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam
- 08-15-21
Interesting stories, but a lack of substance
I give this book three stars instead of one because I learned a lot about the personal histories of the characters involved that I didn't previously know. These stories, with their personal feuds and intellectual allegiances, are valuable and interesting. The book also mentions important bits of the historical development of relativity, including the contributions by Lorentz and Poincare before Einstein's own work, and how the perspectives of both Lorentz and Einstein on the meaning and significance of Einstein's original contributions changed over time.
This book is lacking in one very important regard though. Bergson's contention with relativity is never actually made clear. There are contradictory statements in the book about whether he agreed with the empirical predictions of the theory. Did Bergson believe in the reality of time dilation or not? Did he really not think that biological organisms undergo Lorentz transformations when boosted? (If so, how can he honestly say that he didn't contest the empirical content of relativity?) Did he understand that relativity makes predictions for physical phenomena other than just what clocks read (such as modifications to the energy levels of atoms), and that these can't be explained away as conventionalisms due to using light to measure both time and distance (nor to any features of our biology as humans nor to limitations of current telecommunications technology)? The book doesn't make any of this clear.
And frankly, I'm left wondering why I should care that much about a debate when I don't know what exactly is being debated. Bergson was probably wrong after all (if he disagreed with relativity on anything of substance), since relativity has been experimentally vindicated to great precision by the success of both relativistic quantum field theory and the Lambda CDM model of cosmology.
Although this does not concern the debate between Einstein and Bergson as two individuals, it's also disappointing that Canales did not mention how the views that physicists have of time and simultaneity within relativity have evolved since Einstein. It's common to consider foliations of spacetime or clock synchronization procedures quite different from what Einstein employed, and the meaning of "time" entailed by them is considered equally valid to Einstein's time. (Light front time, defined first in a 1949 paper by Dirac, is quite popular in hadron physics for instance.) It is also unfortunate that "proper time" is never mentioned in the book, since within relativity it signifies the actual amount of lived time that is experienced by a person or thing on its specific journey between two places & times. (Is this what Bergson and Canales mean by duration?) This quantity is invariant with respect to change of reference frame or clock synchronization procedure or spacetime foliation, and framing the supposed paradoxes of relativity in terms of proper times clarifies a lot of confusion. (Invariant quantities such as proper time are also what are given the most attention and emphasis by physicists now.) How do these formal developments weigh in on whatever it is that Bergson disagreed with Einstein about?
The lack of actual analysis into the matter of the debate is a huge hole in the book, and I cannot give it more than three stars because of this, even if the personal histories are interesting and well researched.
A note for listeners of the Audible version: when the reader talks about the precession of Mercury's perihelion, the unit is arcseconds per century, not inches. An arcsecond is 1/3600 of a degree, a small measurement of angle. 43 arcseconds is written 43", which does not mean 43 inches. The reader keeps saying "43 inches" but this is wrong.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kirk Briggs
- 11-19-19
Excellent book on Einstein’s defense of Relativity in France
This book is a refreshingly authentic book about Einstein’s philosophical defense of relativity on a qualitative basis. I’ve read many books about Einstein that don’t offer much in terms of unknown history or original insights. This book delivers on both. Written by a History of Science Harvard Ph.D this effort is first rate. If you like Peter Galison this book is for you. Five stars.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 05-01-24
Pure gold
A compelling recreation of the milieu and major figures, and the changing intensity of their relations
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- peter
- 07-19-15
Celebrating a pseudo ontellectual
Poor Einstein who had to deal with this pompous french pseudo intellectual who was fighting relativity theorie with 'psychological time' which does not slow down and telepathy which is not limited by the speed of light.
This book is way to long and celebrates this pompous arm chair philosopher calling Bergson "the " philosopher.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful