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Anaximander: And the Birth of Science

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Adnkronos (23 November 2022). "I Belladonna mettono all'asta come Nft un brano con Carlo Rovelli". Adnkronos . Retrieved 27 November 2022. Correspondingly, what comes after Anaximander is neither pure naturalistic science nor pure rationalism. The themes that Rovelli pulls from Anaximander’s thought and times are important for the future history of knowledge, but in various guises besides anything we would call “science” in a modern sense. His popular science book, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, was originally published in Italian in 2014. It has been translated into 41 languages [4] and has sold over a million copies worldwide. [5] In 2019, he was included by Foreign Policy magazine in a list of 100 most influential global thinkers. [6] Life and career [ edit ] Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget. Carlo Rovelli on why time is not what it seems". BBC Radio 4. The Life Scientific. BBC . Retrieved 30 January 2020.

Higgins, Charlotte (14 April 2018). " 'There is no such thing as past or future': physicist Carlo Rovelli on changing how we think about time". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 January 2022. In his 2004 book, Quantum Gravity, Rovelli developed a formulation of classical and quantum mechanics that does not make explicit reference to the notion of time. The first step towards a theory of quantum gravity without a time variable is described by Wheeler–DeWitt equation. The timeless formalism is used to describe the world in the regimes where the quantum properties of the gravitational field cannot be disregarded. This is because the quantum fluctuation of spacetime itself makes the notion of time unsuitable for writing physical laws in the conventional form of evolution laws in time. Carlo Rovelli (25 July 2017). "Carlo Rovelli: 'I felt the beautiful adventure of physics was a story that had to be told' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 5 April 2018.The end of this book discusses theories for the origin of religion, and, as often happens when I read such theories, I’m left feeling unconvinced. I started reading The Bicameral Mind last year, but felt it was, as the author here says about other things – an interesting idea, but also that ideas are two-a-penny, and not nearly enough on their own. He appears to have more time for the bicameral mind than I did, but it isn't entirely clear to me why. Personally, I tend to think that humans are narrative centred creatures – we make meaning from the scraps of evidence we find about us, and that is one of the key reasons why science’s radical doubt proves so important for us, because without it we will, quite literally, believe just about anything. There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness, Penguin Random House, 2020 / Ci sono luoghi al mondo dove più che le regole è importante la gentilezza, Solferino, 2020. Our world is understood to be non-deterministic and essentially unpredictable; moreover it works in ways that often strike us as non-intuitive. Quantum theory invites us to see the world as a giant cat’s cradle of relations, where objects exist only in terms of their interaction with one another. Ultimately, says Rovelli, Heisenberg’s is a theory of how things “influence” one another. It forms the basis of all modern technologies from computers to nuclear power, lasers, transistors and MRI scanners. What is time, what is space? (interview), Di Renzo Editore, 2006 / Che cos'è il tempo, che cos'é lo spazio?, Di Renzo Editore, 2004.

This position led him to face the following problem: if time is not part of the fundamental theory of the world, then how does time emerge? In 1993, in collaboration with Alain Connes, Rovelli proposed a solution to this problem called the thermal time hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, time emerges only in a thermodynamic or statistical context. If this is correct, the flow of time is not fundamental, deriving from the incompleteness of knowledge. Similar conclusions had been reached earlier in the context of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, in particular in the work of Robert Zwanzig, and in Caldeira-Leggett models used in quantum dissipation. [14] [15] Relational quantum mechanics [ edit ] Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way forcosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includesthe revolutionary ideasthat the Earth floats in a void,that animals evolved, that the world can be understood innatural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. Heintroduced a new mode of rational thinkingwith an openness to uncertainty and the progress of knowledge. Premio Pagine di Scienza di Rosignano for the book Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity [34] van Fraassen, Bas C. (11 July 2009). "Rovelli's World" (PDF). Foundations of Physics. 40 (4): 390–417. Bibcode: 2010FoPh...40..390V. doi: 10.1007/s10701-009-9326-5. S2CID 17217776. Halperin, Jonathan; Takahashi, Drew (26 September 2022), A Trip to Infinity (Documentary), Makemake, Room 608 , retrieved 8 November 2023Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Penguin Random House, 2015 / Sette brevi lezioni di fisica, Adelphi, 2014. Carlo Rovelli (born May 3, 1956) is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy, the United States and, since 2000, in France. [1] He is also currently a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute, [2] and core member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy of Western University. [3]

Anaximander drew up the first map of the known world. In the generation following him, another Milesian, Hecataeus, expanded this map. Hecataeus’s map served then as the basis for all other ancient (and hence modern) maps. Anaximander wrote the first text in prose about natural phenomena. Earlier works on the origin and structure of the world (Hesiod’s Theogony, for example) had always been written in verse. The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening. Rovelli infatti non si accontenta del ruolo "tecnico" della scienza, di fare previsioni affidabili. Questo è, sì, il metodo per validarneMeant to articulate Anaximander’s multiple insights on the dev of science, it also discusses the theme of human civilisation, political, & social evolution from both; positive and mythico-religious thought. Anaximander's capacity for doubt made most of his discoveries possible. It’s amazing to see how humanity & knowledge have progressed which highlights the importance of tracing the first step in the field. Especially in times where foundation of knowledge was based primarily on myth & divinity.

For example, Parmenides, certainly not a “scientist”, explicitly separated the world as it appears to us (the world of “seeming”) from the world as it really is (the world of “truth”). Aristotle refined a method of presenting the thoughts of earlier philosophers as a basis for his own arguments and positions, providing an explicit structure for progress in thought, but not a method of science per se. Carlo Rovelli's first book, now widely available in English, tells the origin story of scientific thinking: our rebellious ability to reimagine the world, again and again. For one thing, Rovelli says explicitly, in the very first chapter, that this won't be a historical reconstruction of Anaximander's thought, and that he is not aiming at historical-philosophical accuracy in his presentation of the Milesian philosopher - also in light of the fact that he is neither a philosopher nor an historian, and therefore this kind of work doesn't fall within his training and capabilities as a scholar. What he does, instead, is discuss what we know, or believe to be accurate, about Anaximander's thought (and his sources are quite rich in this respect), to discuss this information in terms of why and how this is relevant for understanding the development of the scientific enterprise, and of scientific, naturalistic rationality, as we understand these concepts today. Some authors report that Anaximander was the first to measure the obliquity of the ecliptic (the path that the Sun appears to trace in the sky during the year). This is possible if, as seems likely, he made systematic use of the gnomon, since the obliquity of the ecliptic is the primary natural measurement shown by the gnomon. A deep-thinking, restlessly inquiring spirit’: Carlo Rovelli. Photograph: Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty ImagesI primarily was expecting a good explanation of the history of Anaximander, and Rovelli does a great job of explaining what we know, and also what he thinks are the important scientific takeaways. His history of Anaximander is the facts as historians know it along with the cultural milieu of ancient Greece. As Rovelli explains, it doesn't really matter if Anaximander exists for some of these takeaways, so long as the idea originated from people (or a person) of the era. The idea of the Earth floating in space, of naturalistic accounts of nature (no supernatural explanations), and of accepting uncertainty are the breakthroughs inherent in Anaximander's work, and the groundwork for much of modern science. He appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in February 2023. [48] His hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a white hole. I was looking for the author’s brief lessons in physics and spotted this book as well. To be honest, I thought this one sounded more interesting than the lessons book, so I grabbed it too. It’s a curious little book. Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.

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