Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time
  • Cited by 58
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      December 2014
      December 2014
      ISBN:
      9781139696487
      9781107074064
      9781107423985
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139696487
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      1kg, 566 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 153 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.84kg,
      • Subjects:
      Physics and Astronomy, Philosophy of Science, History, Philosophy and Foundations of Physics, Philosophy
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Physics and Astronomy, Philosophy of Science, History, Philosophy and Foundations of Physics, Philosophy
    Information

    Book description

    Cosmology is in crisis. The more we discover, the more puzzling the universe appears to be. How and why are the laws of nature what they are? A philosopher and a physicist, world-renowned for their radical ideas in their fields, argue for a revolution. To keep cosmology scientific, we must replace the old view in which the universe is governed by immutable laws by a new one in which laws evolve. Then we can hope to explain them. The revolution that Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin propose relies on three central ideas. There is only one universe at a time. Time is real: everything in the structure and regularities of nature changes sooner or later. Mathematics, which has trouble with time, is not the oracle of nature and the prophet of science; it is simply a tool with great power and immense limitations. The argument is readily accessible to non-scientists as well as to the physicists and cosmologists whom it challenges.

    Awards

    Winner, 2016 PROSE Award for Cosmology and Astronomy

    Reviews

    'It might be one of the most important books of our time … Right or wrong, this book is an event.'

    Bryan Appleyard Source: The Sunday Times

    'A hefty explication setting out clear agendas for research into quantum foundations, explanations for the 'arrow of time' and other parts of this puzzle.'

    Source: Nature

    'Any serious intellectual rebellion is worth watching. This one is ambitious: it seeks to root out one of the oldest impulses in the western imagination.'

    Source: The Spectator

    'Is time, after all, real? Two mavericks take an axe to the established theories of cosmology.'

    Source: The Guardian

    '… an admirable restatement of cosmological ambition.'

    Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement

    'Anyone that wants to thoroughly deliberate over the question of cosmology should read this book.'

    Peter Eisenhardt Source: translated from Physik Journal

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents
    References

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.