Anaximander

The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics illuminates the nature of science through the revolutionary ideas of the Greek philosopher Anaximander

Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. He introduced a new mode of rational thinking with an openness to uncertainty and the progress of knowledge.
 
In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander's overlooked influence on modern science. He examines Anaximander not from the point of view of a historian or as an expert in Greek philosophy, but as a scientist interested in the deep nature of scientific thinking, which Rovelli locates in the critical and rebellious ability to reimagine the world again and again. Anaximander celebrates the radical lack of certainty that defines the scientific quest for knowledge.

About the Author

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. His books, including Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, Helgoland, and White Holes, are international bestsellers that have been translated into more than fifty languages. He has been included among the 100 most influential Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine and among the world’s top 50 thinkers by Prospect magazine. Rovelli has worked in Italy, the United States and France, and currently resides in Canada.