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

It requires an unusually strong intellect to remain relevant on a wide variety of social, religious and political issues after 35 years. Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, had just such an intellect. Originally delivered as a three-part lecture series at the University of Washington in 1963, this collection touches on such far-ranging topics as the existence or nonexistence of God; the Constitution; and UFOs. At times, Feynman's comments seem uncannily prescient, as when he discusses the dumbing-down of media: "The whole idea that the average person is unintelligent is a very dangerous idea. Even if it's true, it shouldn't be dealt with the way it's dealt with," he says here. As readers of his previous works (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, etc.) know, Feynman, who died in 1988, was never one to shy away from strong opinions: "Incidentally, I must explain that because I am a scientist does not mean that I have not had contact with human beings," he explains. These memorable lectures confirm that Feynman's gift of insight extended from the subatomic world to the cosmic, and to the very human as well. BOMC featured selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In 1963two years before he got the Nobel PrizeFeynman was asked to deliver three lectures to a lay audience at the University of Washington. Now a new generation of readers can sample vintage Feynman on science, religion, morals, and politics. The voiceplain, no-nonsenseis unmistakable; the ideas, too, will be familiar: Feynman is ever the honest and passionate spokesman for science. The first essay, The Uncertainty of Science, speaks to the never-ending quest to deepen our understanding of the universe, with the understanding that we can never achieve absolute certainty. Essay two, The Uncertainty of Values, takes the strong view that science in and of itself is valueless; it doesnt deal with good or evil. Its how you apply what science has learned that engages moral and ethical issues. With little effort, his ideas apply decades later to contemporary national debates concerning cloning, biological warfare, and environmental pollution. Feynman rather gingerly approaches a discussion of religion. He sees no inconsistency in someone being a scientist and also believing in God. At the same time, he posits a hypothetical student who, as he builds a worldview based on the evidence of evolution and the age of the universe, etc., gradually loses faith in a biblical-style God. He does make it clear that the metaphysics of religion are distinct from whatever moral or ethical values are encoded. The final and longest essay, on the Unscientific Age may be the one that most speaks to today's readers: It is a marvelous compendium of the nonsense and danger of dogmas and pseudoscience, from astrology to ESPwith a few lessons in statistics thrown in for scientists as well. One of the charms of the late Feynman is that in his passion to explain he opened his extraordinary mind to full view by the audience. In this case the audience can and should include students of all ages. (Book-of-the-Month Club featured selection) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The endearing Feynman, an unusual scientist in that he never regarded ordinary people as too dumb to understand science, nor his Nobel Prize self as too exalted to waste time on them, in 1963 delivered the three popular lectures reprinted in this volume. The first two impart the essence of the scientific approach to the natural world, and the extent to which that approach is applicable to ethics, values, and religion. The third talk is a potpourri of things about popular attitudes about science that Feynman seems to have thought up on his feet, in the presence of the audience, which has the virtue of indicating what listening to the living, animated Feynman must have been like. Chuckle-producing, no doubt, as he spears beliefs in UFOs, advertising, astrology, and faith-healing. But belief in religion--that Feynman respected as a realm unreachable by hardheaded science, whose core value of uncertainty Feynman eloquently explains. A popular follow-up to Feynman's Lost Lecture: Motion of the Planets around the Sun, edited by David Goodstein (1996). Gilbert Taylor

"I have completely run out of organized ideas, but I have a large number of uncomfortable feelings about the world which I haven't been able to put into some obvious, logical, and sensible form. Perhaps someday, when I find a real deep reason behind them all, I will be able to give them in one sensible lecture instead of this thing." Alas, the world has only this posthumous "thing," a 1963 tripartite lecture by redoubtable Cal Tech professor Feynman (1918-88). And what a disappointment it is. Absent any meaningful insight or reflection, this maundering monolog, delivered largely in a halting, querulous voice at the University of Washington, weaves unevenly through such matters as advertising, astrology, war, paranoia, nuclear radiation, outer space, radio religion, and the beautification [sic] of Mother Seton. The publisher calls it "Pure gold, pure poetry, pure Feynman." It is anything but. Recommended only for academic libraries that are compelled to own Feynman's complete works.?Robert C. Ballou, Atlanta
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.