Can I read The Island of Knowledge : The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning on EtoBox?

The Island of Knowledge : The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning by Marcelo Gleiser is a philosophy book available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Island of Knowledge : The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning about?

Do all questions have answers? How much can we know about the world? Is there such a thing as an ultimate truth? To be human is to want to know, but what we are able to observe is only a tiny portion of what's'out there.'In The Island of Knowledge, physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence. In so doing, he reaches a provocative conclusion: science, the main tool we use to find answers, is fundamentally limited. These limits to our knowledge arise both from our tools of exploration and from the nature of physical reality: the speed of light, the uncertainty principle, the impossibility of seeing beyond the cosmic horizon, the incompleteness theorem, and our own limitations as an intelligent species. Recognizing limits in this way, Gleiser argues, is not a deterrent to progress or a surrendering to religion. Rather, it frees us to question the meaning and nature of the universe while affirming the central role of life and ourselves in it. Science can and must go on, but recognizing its limits reveals its true mission: to know the universe is to know ourselves. Telling the dramatic story of our quest for understanding, The I

Who reads The Island of Knowledge : The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning?

Author

Marcelo Gleiser

Publisher

Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group

Published

2014

Language

EN

ISBN

9780465049646

Category

philosophy

Subjects

Philosophy, Science, History

Rating

3.92 / 5 (405 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14