To explain the worldSteven Weinberg
To explain the world
by Steven Weinberg · first published 2015
5mentions
4recommended by
4HN commenters
2018–2022first – last mentioned
100% recommend
"Weinberg takes us across centuries from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand, or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science event
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Some good ones I read this year: - _SPQR_, by Mary Beard. Engaging book surveying the history of ancient Rome, mostly Republic and early Empire if I recall correctly. - _To Explain The World_, by Steven Weinberg. History of physics from the ancients to about the time of Newton. Don't skip the technical notes! Actually do the problems! - I reread _Wolf Hall_, by Hilary Mantel, it was as good…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗I recommend "To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science" by Steven Weinberg.
on “Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?” ↗To Explain The World by Steven Weinberg is great, written by a Nobel laureate theoretical physicist for a popular audience.
on “Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?” ↗"To Explain the World" by Steven Weinberg. Not only a history of science, but one written by a great scientist.
on “Ask HN: Any recommendation for a good History of Science book?” ↗In what may be a case of Baader-Meinhof, I just came across the term "Whiggish" for the first time, reading Steven Weinberg's _To Explain the World_ (pretty good so far). He also has a dig at Kuhn, recounting a time when they met briefly and Kuhn gave a defense of Aristotle that he found incoherent. I'm no expert in the field of scientific thought,…
on “Errol Morris Refutes It Thus” ↗