The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist

English language

ISBN:: 978-0-465-02394-3

(1 review)

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist is a non-fiction book by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. It is a collection of three previously unpublished public lectures given by Feynman in 1963. The book was first published in hardcover in 1998, ten years after Feynman's death, by Addison–Wesley. Several paperback and audiobook editions of the book have subsequently been published.The Meaning of It All is non-technical book in which Feynman investigates the relationship between science and society.

2 editions

mau reviewed The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard P. Feynman

It's always worth it to read Feynman

4 stars

This book is a transcript of three talks given by Feynman in April 1963. The talks deal with a variety of topics: science, religion, politics, language - valuable insight into the thoughts and opinions of one of the greatest American scientists of the past century. Highly worth a read.

Very noteworthy and currently timely comments from Feynman concerning the risks of the "Americanism" movement and the "Birch society", which has gone from a fringe movement when he denounced it in the 60s to being some of the leading ideologues of the Trump regime.

This being a verbatim transcript of public lectures, there are some errors, clearly he misspeaks some times, repeats himself and uses some crutches ("and so on") - it could have used some editing, but it was published posthumously against Feynman's will.