The Meaning of It All
Encyclopedia
The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist is a non-fiction
book by 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 It is a collection of three previously unpublished public lectures given by Feynman in 1963.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 popular science
book in which Feynman investigates the relationship between science and society.
gave on the theme "A Scientist Looks at Society" during the John Danz Lecture Series at the University of Washington
, Seattle in April 1963. At the time Feynman was already a highly respected physicist
who played a big role in laying the groundwork for modern particle physics
. Two years later in 1965, Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics
with Julian Schwinger
and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga
for their work in quantum electrodynamics
.
The three lectures were not published at the time, because, despite requests by the University of Washington Press, Feynman did not want them to be printed. The Meaning of It All was published posthumously by Addison–Wesley in 1998, with the lectures having been transcribed "verbatim" from audio recordings.
Apart from numerous scientific papers, Feynman also published The Feynman Lectures on Physics
in 1964, which was based on lectures he had given to undergraduate students
between 1961 and 1963. Towards the end of his life, he edited two autobiographical
books, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
and What Do You Care What Other People Think?
, published in 1985 and 1988 respectively.
The second lecture, "The Uncertainty of Values" deals with his views on the relationship between science, religion and politics. Feynman acknowledges science's limitations and says that it does not have the "value system" that religions have, but adds that it can be used to help in making decisions. He also stresses the importance of having the freedom to question and explore, and criticizes the (then) Soviet Union
by saying that no government has the right to decide which scientific principles are correct and which are not.
In the third lecture, "This Unscientific Age", the longest of the three, Feynman discusses his views on modern society and how unscientific it is. Using a number of anecdotes as examples, he covers a range of topics, including "faith healing
, flying saucer
s, politics, psychic phenomena
, TV commercials, and desert real estate
".
In The Guardian
Nicholas Lezard
wrote that The Meaning of It All has almost no science in it, and that Feynman, two years before winning the Nobel Prize in Physics
, gave these lectures to a non-specialist audience and spoke of "the principles of scientific methodology as if he was making a good wedding speech". Bruce Tierney said on the Book Page that it gives readers "the opportunity to take a fresh glimpse into the inner workings of one of the finest minds of our age", adding that Feynman "expounds on [...] issues with his characteristic energy and intellectual vigor".
Nick Meyer wrote in the New York
magazine that Feynman departs from his field of theoretical physics
and "waxes philosophical" on "the strengths and limitations of scientific thought", using topics like "poverty, religion, and flying saucers" to illustrate his arguments. Meyer said that Feynman "sounds like himself, which is a high compliment." Chris Quigg
, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
, said that The Meaning of It All is an opportunity to "ponder and debate [Feynman's] ideas". Quigg said it is also an "unspoken challenge" to other scientists to consider the "cultural and spiritual value of science".
Timothy Ferris
writing in The New York Times
was generally impressed with the first two lectures, but felt that Feynman's "ad-lib approach" faltered in the third. At the beginning of this last lecture Feynman said, "I have completely run out of organized ideas", and Ferris felt that this showed in the somewhat "ragged" speech that followed. Eli Kintish in The Yale Review of Books complained that while the lectures "burn with the fuel of Feynman's enthusiasm", they are difficult to follow in places because of their lack of focus. Kintish said that with some editing it would have been "a more accessible read", but added that the book was still full of "original gems". David Goodstein
, a physicist who attended the lectures in 1963, wrote in American Scientist
that while the book has "some nuggets of pure Feynman gold", it is "badly dated and atrociously edited". Goodstein complained that the publishers had ignored Feynman's request not to print the lectures, and said that the book "does not honor his memory".
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
book by Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
-winning physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
. It is a collection of three previously unpublished public lectures given by Feynman in 1963. The book was first published in hardcover
Hardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
in 1998, ten years after Feynman's death, by Addison–Wesley. Several paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
and audiobook editions of the book have subsequently been published.
The Meaning of It All is non-technical popular science
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
book in which Feynman investigates the relationship between science and society.
Background
The Meaning of It All contains three public lectures Richard FeynmanRichard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
gave on the theme "A Scientist Looks at Society" during the John Danz Lecture Series at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, Seattle in April 1963. At the time Feynman was already a highly respected physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
who played a big role in laying the groundwork for modern particle physics
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
. Two years later in 1965, Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
with Julian Schwinger
Julian Schwinger
Julian Seymour Schwinger was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on the theory of quantum electrodynamics, in particular for developing a relativistically invariant perturbation theory, and for renormalizing QED to one loop order.Schwinger is recognized as one of the...
and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga
Sin-Itiro Tomonaga
was a Japanese physicist, influential in the development of quantum electrodynamics, work for which he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 along with Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger.-Biography:...
for their work in quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics
Quantum electrodynamics is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In essence, it describes how light and matter interact and is the first theory where full agreement between quantum mechanics and special relativity is achieved...
.
The three lectures were not published at the time, because, despite requests by the University of Washington Press, Feynman did not want them to be printed. The Meaning of It All was published posthumously by Addison–Wesley in 1998, with the lectures having been transcribed "verbatim" from audio recordings.
Apart from numerous scientific papers, Feynman also published The Feynman Lectures on Physics
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
The Feynman Lectures on Physics is a 1964 physics textbook by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands, based upon the lectures given by Feynman to undergraduate students at the California Institute of Technology in 1961–63. It includes lectures on mathematics, electromagnetism,...
in 1964, which was based on lectures he had given to undergraduate students
Undergraduate education
Undergraduate education is an education level taken prior to gaining a first degree . Hence, in many subjects in many educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree, such as in the United States, where a university entry level is...
between 1961 and 1963. Towards the end of his life, he edited two autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
books, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, released in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's life...
and What Do You Care What Other People Think?
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences from American physicist Richard Feynman. It follows Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!The book presents his life as a series of...
, published in 1985 and 1988 respectively.
Synopsis
In the first lecture, "The Uncertainty of Science" Feynman explains the nature of science, that it is a "method for finding things out", and that it is "based on the principle that observation is the judge of whether something is so or not". He says that uncertainty and doubt in science is a good thing, because it always keeps the door open for further investigation.The second lecture, "The Uncertainty of Values" deals with his views on the relationship between science, religion and politics. Feynman acknowledges science's limitations and says that it does not have the "value system" that religions have, but adds that it can be used to help in making decisions. He also stresses the importance of having the freedom to question and explore, and criticizes the (then) Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
by saying that no government has the right to decide which scientific principles are correct and which are not.
In the third lecture, "This Unscientific Age", the longest of the three, Feynman discusses his views on modern society and how unscientific it is. Using a number of anecdotes as examples, he covers a range of topics, including "faith healing
Faith healing
Faith healing is healing through spiritual means. The healing of a person is brought about by religious faith through prayer and/or rituals that, according to adherents, stimulate a divine presence and power toward correcting disease and disability. Belief in divine intervention in illness or...
, flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
s, politics, psychic phenomena
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
, TV commercials, and desert real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
".
Reception
The Meaning of It All was generally well received by reviewers, although some said that the lectures did not translate into print very well and complained about the awkward sentence constructions in places resulting from the transcription from the audio recordings.In The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Nicholas Lezard
Nicholas Lezard
Nicholas Lezard is an English journalist and literary critic.Lezard has a weekly column, 'Nicholas Lezard's choice', reviewing paperback books for the Guardian. He also writes for the Independent, and writes the 'Down and Out in London' column for the New Statesman.-External links:* at journalisted...
wrote that The Meaning of It All has almost no science in it, and that Feynman, two years before winning the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
, gave these lectures to a non-specialist audience and spoke of "the principles of scientific methodology as if he was making a good wedding speech". Bruce Tierney said on the Book Page that it gives readers "the opportunity to take a fresh glimpse into the inner workings of one of the finest minds of our age", adding that Feynman "expounds on [...] issues with his characteristic energy and intellectual vigor".
Nick Meyer wrote in the New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine that Feynman departs from his field of theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
and "waxes philosophical" on "the strengths and limitations of scientific thought", using topics like "poverty, religion, and flying saucers" to illustrate his arguments. Meyer said that Feynman "sounds like himself, which is a high compliment." Chris Quigg
Chris Quigg
Chris Quigg is a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory . He graduated from Yale University in 1966 and received his Ph.D. in 1970 under the tutelage of J. D. Jackson at the University of California, Berkeley...
, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Fermilab
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics...
, said that The Meaning of It All is an opportunity to "ponder and debate [Feynman's] ideas". Quigg said it is also an "unspoken challenge" to other scientists to consider the "cultural and spiritual value of science".
Timothy Ferris
Timothy Ferris
Timothy Ferris is a science writer and the best-selling author of twelve books, including The Science of Liberty and Coming of Age in the Milky Way , for which he was awarded the American Institute of Physics Prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize...
writing in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was generally impressed with the first two lectures, but felt that Feynman's "ad-lib approach" faltered in the third. At the beginning of this last lecture Feynman said, "I have completely run out of organized ideas", and Ferris felt that this showed in the somewhat "ragged" speech that followed. Eli Kintish in The Yale Review of Books complained that while the lectures "burn with the fuel of Feynman's enthusiasm", they are difficult to follow in places because of their lack of focus. Kintish said that with some editing it would have been "a more accessible read", but added that the book was still full of "original gems". David Goodstein
David Goodstein
David L. Goodstein is a U.S. physicist and educator. From 1988 to 2007 he served as Vice-provost of the California Institute of Technology , where he is also a professor of physics and applied physics, as well as the Frank J...
, a physicist who attended the lectures in 1963, wrote in American Scientist
American Scientist
American Scientist is the bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi. Each issue includes four to five feature articles written by scientists and engineers. These authors review research in all fields of science...
that while the book has "some nuggets of pure Feynman gold", it is "badly dated and atrociously edited". Goodstein complained that the publishers had ignored Feynman's request not to print the lectures, and said that the book "does not honor his memory".
External links
- The Meaning of It All publication data at Open LibraryOpen LibraryOpen Library is an online project intended to create “one web page for every book ever published”. Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive and has been funded in part by a grant from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.-Books for the blind and...
.