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A historical account of highly ambitious attempts to understand all of nature in terms of fundamental physics. Presenting old and new 'theories of everything' in their historical contexts, the book discusses the nature and limits of scientific explanation in connection with concrete case studies.
List of contents
Part I: Cases from the Past; 1 Beginnings of Modern Science; 2 A Victorian Theory of Everything; 3 Electrodynamics as a World View; 4 Rationalist Cosmologies; 5 Cosmology and Controversy; 6 The Rise and Fall of the Bootstrap Programme; Part II: The Present Scene; 7 Varying Constants of Nature; 8 New Cyclic Models of The Universe; 9 Anthropic Science; 10 The Multiverse Scenario; 11 String Theory and Quantum Gravity; 12 Astrobiology and Physical Eschatology; 13 Summary: Final Theories and Epistemic Shifts
About the author
After graduation from the University of Copenhagen in physics and chemistry, and a period as a high school teacher, Helge Kragh became Associate Professor at Cornell University, Departments of History and Physics. Since 1990 he has held positions as Curator at the Steno Museum for Science and Medicine, Aarhus University, and as Professor of History of Science at the University of Oslo. In 1997 he was appointed Professor of History of Science and Technology at Aarhus University, Denmark. Kragh is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, the International Academy for History of Science, the European Society for History of Science, the European Physical Society, and the European Academy of Science.
Summary
A historical account of highly ambitious attempts to understand all of nature in terms of fundamental physics. Presenting old and new 'theories of everything' in their historical contexts, the book discusses the nature and limits of scientific explanation in connection with concrete case studies.
Additional text
Helge Kragh is one of our best historians of physics, and the author of several outstanding books. The idea of a history of highly speculative theories in physics is excellent. Although there are popular accounts of recent cosmological and grand-unifying theories, no historian has so far attempted to bring together old and new cases of such theories. The result makes fascinating reading and induces thought-provoking comparisons.
