The order of time

240 pages

English language

Published Nov. 6, 2018 by Riverhead Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7352-1610-5
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OCLC Number:
1020300173

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4 stars (13 reviews)

Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.--

1 edition

Review of 'The order of time' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Like Moby-Dick, there are two books mingled together here: one talks about time, and how physicists today view it. The other, far less organized, is Rovelli’s digressions. He brings in everyone from Aristotle to Heidegger to Buddha, to get their views on time. Unfortunately, these asides are often irrelevant, and smack of an attempt to see in past thinkers’ writings a préfiguration of what modern science has discovered.
But he fails to explain how Heidegger or Aristotle came to their views on time — that is, whether they employed sound reasoning and observation, or just happened to get lucky on one or two topics.

Review of 'The order of time' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This beautiful little book is as much philosophy as it is physics. Drawing on sources as diverse as Hindu, Buddhist, and Judeo-Christian traditions, ancient philosophers, Newton, Einstein, thermodynamics and quantum physics, Rovelli explores humanity’s intimate relationship with time, and the scientific pursuit to pin it down. Rovelli illuminates his synthesis with lyrical, imagery-laden prose, and provides ample references and notes in the inevitable event the reader is provoked to learn more.

One of the ideas that struck me was his suggestion that the Universe consists of events, not things, essentially that nothing is permanent. I woke up this morning singing the following Talking Heads lyrics:

Heaven
Heaven is a place
A place where nothing
Nothing ever happens

Maybe heaven is a black hole?

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Subjects

  • Time
  • Presentism (Philosophy)
  • Space and time
  • Cosmology

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