You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
This book is based off a series of lectures Feynman gave for laymen audiences. I don't think the editors changed enough to say it is "based off" the lectures, actually--even "Thank you for the laugh" and that sort of thing are left in. The lectures cover science and its relation to doubt, religion, and politics. Feynman is critical of his lectures, and with some reason to be, but none of the reasons matter much. It was a pleasure to listen to this, despite its faults.
The lectures were repetitive, both over the course of all of them and in each one. It seemed like he had some difficulty explaining his ideas. In one, he basically said he ran out of ideas and was going to ramble for a while. The ideas were solid and coherent, though I doubt some of them would stand up against, say, some philosophers. I thought it was strongest when he kept to science, and I think he did too. Why wouldn't it be? He was a scientist and knew that best.
Feynman comes across as extremely likeable in this collection. The audiobook narrator was great, and conveyed Feynman's enthusiasm well. This would really be 3 1/2 stars if Goodreads would allow that. I genuinely enjoyed listening to it, but it is repetitious, and clever if less than brilliant. I'd recommend it if you're a big Feynman fan or have a few hours to kill, but it isn't a must read, I'm afraid.
These three lectures, about science, society, philosophy, religion and so on, were delivered in the early sixties but not published until after Feynman's death. They read as though they are basically transcriptions of more or less off the cuff speaking rather than as composed in written form for the book.
Basically the theme of the talks is how science relates to society's other concerns, with interesting digressions on subjects like why politicians' promises can't be trusted (because real life situations are often too complex for sound bit answers). The sections where Feynman defines science and where he talks about religion are particularly interesting, but there are thought provoking ideas throughout.
There are two - at least - disappointing aspects to the lectures. One is the occasional piece of naive American patriotism, endorsing the space race, for example, because it wouldn't do to let the Russians get too far ahead. This is more a product of the time and place than anything else, but it certainly dates what is said and reduces the impact of the more interesting bits.
The other problem is more serious, and pervades the whole book. The general tone of the lectures is over-simplified, and has a tendency when written down rather than spoken to come over as patronising. Feynman was a great communicator, and I suspect this problem is a result of the lectures being transcribed from the oral to written medium without editing. The Meaning of It All is interesting, but could have been fascinating if intended to be a book from the start.
Here, Feynman wades a long way beyond his own territory to examine the relationship of science to politics, religion and other aspects of wider Western civilisation. He repeatedly points out that he is no authority, he could be wrong in his conclusions and so forth, which leads one towards examining his arguments on their merits rather than the celebrity or reputation of Feynman himself...which is exactly what Feynman wanted to achieve, I suspect: Don't take my word for it, question, examine and test for yourself - or put another way, take a more scientific approach to questions that are amenable to that approach.
If you want to know how to do that, well this book is a reasonable starting point. Other works by Feynman could help, too. It does no harm for practising scientists to be reminded of some basic principles, too. Various people have been insisting that I should respect Argument from Authority, recently and it is literally depressing me that they cannot see that if scientists took such an approach we would still have Plato's world-view.