The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy

Roberto Mangabeira Unger · Lee Smolin

Dec 2014 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

Another philosophical beat up. What about the strong and weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, gravity and the speed of light? I guess these are just 'concepts' of the mind? But technically they are I guess, just approximations to the phenomenality of nature, rather than nature itself. Yeah, I get it. What allot of hot air about bollocks. I'll stick with the laws mate. If there good enough for Einstein then we can reach a compromise with cosmology... Surely!

About the author

Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who has made important contributions to quantum gravity. He was educated at Hampshire College and Harvard University. He is a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His earlier books explore philosophical issues raised by contemporary physics and cosmology: Life of the Cosmos, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, The Trouble with Physics, and Time Reborn. Lee Smolin was awarded The Buchalter Cosmology Prize 2014 for his co-authored paper 'The Universe as a Process of Unique Events'.